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PASS OF THE DESPENAPEROS, BETWEEN GRANADA AND BARCELONA. 



RAMBLES 



IN 



SUNNY SPAIN. 



By FRED A. OBER. 



FULLY ILLUSTRATED. 

% 



BOSTON 
ESTES AND LAURIAT 

PUBLISHERS 






Copyright, 1889, 
By Estes and Lauriat. 



All rights reserved. 



25467 




dolontal IQress: 

C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. Something Preliminary n 

II. Beyond the Pyrenees 26 

III. South through Leon and Castile 47 

IV. The City of the Cid Campeador 67 

V. In the " Eighth Wonder of the World " 83 

VI. Some Midsummer Days in Madrid 99 

VII. Toledo, on the Golden Tagus 118 

VIII. Don Quixote's Country, and Cordova 136 

IX. Sight-seeing in Seville 157 

X. Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malaga 186 

XI. About Palos, Columbus, and Tarshish 209 

XII. On the Way to Granada . 223 

XIII. Granada. — The Alhambra 242 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Pass of the Despenaperos, between 
Granada and Barcelona . . . Frontispiece 

A Spanish Courtyard 12 

En Route 14 

A French Bonne 18 

Madrid 21 

Tally-ho 24 

A Spanish Diligence 27 

Aguadores 30 

A Fish-boy 34 

A Terrible Fall 35 

A Family Party 39 

Natives 44 

A Family of Travelling Musicians . . 48 

Smugglers 53 

Segovia Alcazar and Cathedral ... 57 

Salamanca 59 

Beggars 65 

Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos . . 69 

The Cid 75 

The Cid's Coffer, Burgos Cathedral . . 78 

The Inquisition, Barcelona .... 81 

The Escorial 8c 

" Hard Luck " 88 

Abdication of Charles V 89 

Philip II 9 i 

Interior of the Library of the Escorial . 93 

The Royal Palace, Madrid 97 



The Royal Armory 

The Fountain of the Cybele, Madrid 

Cardinal Ximenes 

Fountain of the Swan, Madrid . . . 
Fountain of the Seasons, Madrid 

A Street in Toledo 

Puerta del Sol, Toledo 

Bridge of San Martin, Toledo . . 
Interior of the Cathedral, Toledo . 

The Alcazar, Toledo 

Don Quixote 

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza . 
Chapel in the Mosque at Cordova 

Valencian Laborer 

Interior of the Mosque at Cordova . . 

A Baratero 

On the Way to the Fair 

Hall of the Ambassadors, Seville . . . 

The Giralda, Seville 

Interior of the Cathedral. Seville . . . 
Moorish Arches of the Alcazar, Seville . 

The Picador 

The Espada 

Play of the Cape 

The Cachetero 

Cadiz 

The Defeat of the Armada 

Trafalgar Bay 



Page 
[01 

[03 
[07 

1 1 

15 

23 

27 

29 

33 
[37 
141 

45 
43 
[49 

53 

58 

[61 
65 

169 

73 

77 

[80 

81 

83 
187 

9i 
'95 



Vlll 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

The Rock of Gibraltar 197 

Sketch in Gibraltar 201 

Malaga 203 

A Sketch in Malaga 207 

Street Musicians 210 

Columbus 211 

Peasant 214 

Queen Isabella 215 

Columbus put in Irons 216 

On Muleback 220 



Page 

Balconies of Granada 225 

A Family of Mendicants 229 

Chatto Diaz 231 

The Bandit Pedro 234 

Loungers 238 

The Banks of the Guadalquivir . . . 239 

Tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella . . . 243 

Fountain in the Alhambra 247 

Gate of Justice, Alhambra 250 

General View of the Alhambra . 251 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



Rambles in Sunny Spain. 




CHAPTER I. 

SOMETHING PRELIMINARY. 

HEN one has the world to choose from, but only a 
limited time for travel, he is apt to look about 
sharply for a country that will yield the most in 
return for his outlay. 

This was the feeling that actuated us in the 
choice of Spain. We felt that we should get greater returns for our 
summer's journey than from any other equal portion of the globe. 
In the first place, our little travels hitherto taken had in a measure 
prepared us for Spain. In Florida we had met with Spanish archi- 
tecture (especially in St. Augustine) and Spanish names of rivers, 
lakes, and towns, while the most fascinating portion of Florida's his- 
tory is that which tells of the adventures of the steel-clad cavaliers 
of De Soto and De Narvaez. If in the land of the Everglades we had 
been led to think upon Spain as the " mother-country," in the West 
Indies again everything still pointed back to that land of the olive 
and the vine, that home of Ponce de Leon, Cortez, and Columbus. 

So it was, gentle reader, that our thoughts gradually shaped them- 
selves ; and by the time we were prepared for another journey, we 
had settled upon Spain as the object of it. Without mentioning 
any other reason than that its historical associations fascinated us, is 
not this alone enough to account for our choice ? No other land of 



12 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 




A SPANISH COURTYARD. 



the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere is so inti- 
mately connected 
with the early histo- 
ry of America. And 
in view of the near 
approach of the four 
hundredth anniver- 
sary of the first 
voyage of Colum- 
bus (in 1492), we 
believe that there 
will be a revival of 
interest in all things 
pertaining to early 
Spain. Thus we 
reasoned together 
(we, — the Historian 
and the Professor) 
as we cast about 
for another knock- 
about journey. 

Our "Club," so 
termed, had dwin- 
dled down to two, 
for various interests 
had separated us ; 
but we found that 
there was more real 
work in this num- 
ber than in any 
dozen chance would 
bring together. 



SOMETHING PRELIMINARY. I ^ 

When you come to think of it, is there any more real fun in a crowd 
than in a pair? And doesn't it always happen that no matter how 
many start off together, they always separate into pairs ? 

Yes, "two is always company, three a crowd/' With more than 
two, the company is always hauling different ways at once, and very 
little is accomplished, unless one wise head directs. In our case there 
were two heads, but we were united on one thing: we wanted to see 
ail we could that w 7 as worth seeing. We wanted the best the world 
had to give in the way of wisdom and healthful pleasure. We had 
got tired of aimless wanderings, and had resolved that this journey 
should have a motive behind it. That motive was the study of history. 
Nothing so enriches the mind, broadens the man, and adorns the 
student, as the study of man's doings in the past. And to study the 
history of great events amid the scenes of their happening is the most 
fascinating of employments, and one that leaves the most lasting 
impressions. x 

We had resolved, then, to go to Spain to study the history of 
America; that is, to hunt out the homes of the early conquistadorcs 
(or conquerors), to examine the types of architecture we had seen 
reproduced in the West Indies, to visit Palos, whence Columbus 
sailed for America, Cadiz and Seville, the flourishing cities of that 
age, and the Alhambra, where the last of the Moors reared that palace 
so famous throughout the world. 

Other objects we had also; but the central idea was history, and 
about this you will find grouped adventure and the incidents of travel. 

In the first place, we 'd got to get there. We had thought it an 
easy matter to find a steamer going direct to Cadiz or Malaga; but 
when we came to scan the papers we found there was then no direct 
line at all, for the Italian government had engaged the steamers to 
carry troops into the Red Sea. 

The next best thing was to go by the way of France or England. 
The best lines, we found, w r ould carry us to Liverpool or London, 



H 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



whence we could purchase tickets to Paris, and thence to Spain. 
This we decided to do. 

As we left America in March, before the usual tide of travel had 
set in, we had the best state-rooms on the steamer at our service, and 
at a lower rate than could have been secured later in the year. 

Just where to begin, in a description of one's voyage and an 

account of his ex- 
periences in a 
newly-visited coun- 
try, is a difficult 
thing to deter- 
mine. Were it an 
entirely new field, 
where no traveller 
had preceded, the 
task would seem 
c ompa r at i vely 
easy; but in a 
country that has 
been visited by 
Americans time 
out of mind, what 
original thing can 
be said of it? And as to the voyage across the Atlantic, has it not 
been given a thousand times with details of wearisome fidelity, and 
the petty incidents of life aboard ship related ad nauseam ? Verily, 
it is a troublesome task to write a fresh letter on an old subject. Let 
us state merely that the voyage across occupied nine days ; that our 
ship, the good " City of Berlin," carried us safely. To be sure, the 
boat rolled about considerably, and disgusting old Neptune claimed 
and got his customary tribute. But, taken all together, it was a 
very satisfactory voyage, and we were not at all troubled to learn 




EN ROUTE. 



SOMETHING PRELIMINARY. I 5 

that the fast Cunarder, the u Umbria," had beaten us by nearly two 
days. 

At Liverpool we passed happily through the hands of the custom 
officers and escaped without a feather ruffled. In truth, they troubled 
us far less than their cousins on this side of the water are wont, 
merely asking us to unlock our trunks, passing their hands over our 
goods in a perfunctory way, and bidding us go on. The only man 
who had his luggage at all overhauled was one Israel, a most sus- 
picious-looking character, upon whom the officials pounced at once as 
a possible dynamiter, — the very man, in our opinion, the least likely 
to prove dangerous. We had heard so much about English extor- 
tion in the matter of fees from tourists and charges for cab-hire, etc., 
that we were prepared to undergo almost anything ; and hence the 
reason, perhaps, that our experience, though short, was not so dis- 
agreeable as we had expected it to be. Thanks to an English friend, 
an acquaintance of the voyage, we made the trip to the station and 
thence to London at a minimum of bother and expense. Cabby, to 
be sure, asked a shilling more than his fare, but he did n't get it. 
Each one paid the porter sixpence at the station for trundling his 
trunks and valises off to the van, and we gave another hireling a 
few pence for thrusting some foot-warmers into our cars. On board 
ship of course we gave fees to the men who take care of the rooms 
and wait on the tables ; and these fees are not obligatory, though 
customary. 

We need not pause to reflect upon the railway system of old 
England, which is so excellent in its general features and so exe- 
crable in many appointments. To introduce a comparison between 
our cars and their obsolete carriages is like contrasting an ocean 
steamship with Noahs Ark. They were the usual old coops on 
wheels, into which we were shut with a bang at each principal sta- 
tion and left to endure the miseries of the journey to the next. The 
day was bitter cold, and with nothing but the iron foot-warmer to 



1 6 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

bestow heat, we were in an unenviable state by the time we reached 
London. In that city again the scene at Liverpool station was re- 
enacted, — a small fee to the porter, a sharp bargain with Jehu, and 
a ride through the crowded streets to Victoria station. As our train 
for Paris did not leave for several hours, my friend, though just home 
from a journey half around the world, proposed to take us about a 
bit; and after he had lunched with his family we returned for him 
and made a visit to the army-and-navy stores and other establish- 
ments, where, through his introduction, we had opportunity to pur- 
chase some needed articles at British prices. 

It began to snow at dusk, and as it was not a good time, nor our 
desire great for sightseeing, we took the first train out for Dieppe. 
Of the routes to Paris, we had chosen that via Neuhaven and Dieppe 
for various reasons. 

We were assigned seats in a compartment with six women, and 
then the door was locked, and those women began to chatter. The 
train was a slow one, and occupied three hours in getting to Neu- 
haven, but it arrived before those women had got done talking; and 
when they concluded the conversation we don't know, as we saw them 
no more. Through mist and falling rain we groped our way over a 
bridge across the railroad track to the boat, and dispersed ourselves 
according as we held first or second class tickets. Then it was as- 
certained that the boat would not leave till two o'clock in the morn- 
ing. There were no berths to sleep in, but the first arrivals in the 
saloon (so called by courtesy) might possess themselves of a section 
of an upholstered bench, and stretch themselves out to sleep — if 
they could. The people on board seemed to take it for granted that 
we were all to be sick, but in this they were grievously disappointed. 
We crossed the famous and awful channel without being in the least 
distressed. 

At Dieppe, where we arrived about nine o'clock in the morning, 
we found quite pleasant weather to welcome us, after the cold and 



SOMETHING PRELIMINARY. I 7 

snow of England ; still, an overcoat was quite agreeable, and warm 
o-ioves were not unacceptable. There, also, for the second time, our 
luo-o-ao-e underwent the formal farce of an examination, — that is, we 
all marched up the street, carrying our hand-luggage, and had it 
" chalked ,5 as fast as we could be pushed through a circuitous pas- 
sageway at the custom-house. Then we marched back down the 
street in search of the cars and of breakfast. The former we found, 
and depositing the small articles in our seats, sallied out for some- 
thing to eat. This excursion was tolerably successful, notwithstand- 
ing our limited stock of French words on hand, and the limited 
understanding of the waiters. While we were waiting for the train 
to start, a peasant girl came along with some apples to sell, — the 
smallest, most insignificant apples we had seen in a twelvemonth. 
But she assured us they were " ver grand appels," and though we 
would not buy, she insisted on giving us a bunch of flowers ; which 
stratagem of course had the desired effect, and we purchased several 
of " ze grand appels," and had the pleasure of finding them as sour 
and worthless as they appeared. 

On our way through England over the Northwestern Railway 
we were impressed with the thorough cultivation everywhere shown. 
Every rod of the surface seemed to have been ploughed, or harrowed, 
or grubbed with a hoe, or teased with a rake. But in France, on the 
route from Dieppe to Paris, every foot, every inch almost, seemed to 
have been thoroughly pulverized and planted. Thrift and content- 
ment here dwelt side by side. 

The ride to Paris was tolerably rapid, but four stops being made, — 
one of these at the celebrated Rouen, which has such a famous cathe- 
dral. It is not our purpose to give descriptions of French towns and 
cities, since all these can be found in the guide-books. When we once 
get off the beaten track, then we shall hope to present something of 
interest. We rolled into Paris through a drizzling rain, and escaped 
from the collectors of customs and octroi without any trouble what- 



i8 



RAMBLES IN SUXXY SPAIX. 



ever. The customary question is, " Have you any spirits or cigars? " 
If you answer in the negative, and happen to have a fairly honest 
expression on at the moment, the chances are that your baggage 
will not be troubled. As we had burdened ourselves with a trunk, 
owing to carrying numerous photographic plates and apparatus, we 
were compelled to pay well for the convenience. In London they 

made that trunk weigh 
one hundred and ten 
pounds, though we could 
have sworn it did not ex- 
ceed eighty, and charged 
at the rate of five cents 
per pound for all in ex- 
cess of sixty pounds. 
Thus we paid two dollars 
for alleged excess, and sub- 
sequently much more. 

Well, we arrived at 
the Gare de Lazarus, in 
Paris, and took cab for 
our hotel. Paris was 
gloomy, unattractive, cold 
and clammy, hence we 
did not linger long within 
its precincts. In truth, we 
only went to Paris because 
we had to, in order to take 
rail for the country con- 
tiguous to Spain. We lingered there long enough to present a few 
letters of introduction, to find out that our friends domiciled there 
were as much disgusted with the city as we were, — on account of 
the weather, — then hastened away for the country more to the south. 




A FRENCH BONNE. 



SOMETHING PRELIMINARY. 1 9 

We found out, however, that our French and the Parisian were not 
one and the same thing, that the people would persist in misunder- 
standing us, and that the best thing we could do was to run away 
and leave them to themselves. It is not necessary that one should 
speak French, however, to get about in Paris ; for in the centre of 
the capital there is a very numerous English population ; more or 
less a floating population, perhaps, but nevertheless always willing 
to lend a hand to a benighted foreigner unacquainted with the lan- 
guage. It may be that we were too sensitive, and because our own 
French rather grated on our ear, attributed to the Frenchman an 
aversion to hearing it spoken equal to our own. The Frenchman is 
very willing to overlook mistakes ; and many of the shopkeepers even 
will advance half-way to meet a foreigner, with a sort of provisional 
and extempore volapuk that would make one unhappy to meet with 
later on in his career. Some of the French terms are quite like our 
own, as for instance, " bifstek," which one might recognize on a bill- 
of-fare a rod away; " rosbif " is another result of an attempt on John 
Crapeau's part to domicile some of our household words. 

After all, Paris is n't such a bad place to stop in at the right season 
of the year. One can live there, also, as cheaply as in Boston or New 
York, if he so desires. Good rooms can be hired at very good hotels 
at from three francs up, and a meal can be got at almost any price. 
At " Duval's establishments " one can get a breakfast or dinner at 
anything above a franc. Vin ordinaire ten centimes a pint, beefsteak 
with potatoes fifteen cents, beefsteak with mushrooms one franc. 
Think of that ! Twenty cents for a steak garnished with fresh and 
juicy mushrooms such as we of the United States seldom find. 

There was a mild excitement in Paris when we were there over 
the advent of Boulanger, who quietly slipped into the city at day- 
light one morning, and took up his abode for a few days at the Hotel 
de Louvre. As we were returning to our hotel one evening, we sud- 
denly found ourselves in the centre of a noisy crowd, mostly of young 



20 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

men and boys, who were giving occasional shouts for Boulanger. 
All at once, from several ' side streets, bodies of gendarmes came 
charging upon the crowd, we were jostled from the sidewalk, and 
some of the boys were carried off to the " cooler." It was a rather 
feeble demonstration, but the only exciting thing we saw. 

Having reached Paris, the next thing was to get from Paris to 
Spain. For a time we were in a quandary ; but all at once it was 
settled for us in a twinkling. One day at the cafe we met a white- 
haired old gentleman, with a benevolent face and portly form, who 
introduced himself as an American long time domiciled in Paris, and 
perfectly acquainted with the language and customs of the people. 
This welcome acquaintance placed himself at our disposition, and 
gave us at once the very information we desired. 

" It is just as easy," he said, "to go from Paris to Madrid, as from 
New York to Boston, after you are acquainted with the lines. The 
system of railways in Spain is French, for it was mainly French capital 
that built all the lines, especially those of the North and the inter- 
national lines. These railroads cost immense sums, and their history 
is but that of roads the world over, — that which one company plants 
another gathers the fruit of. The northern lines especially are built 
through a mountainous country, necessitating numerous tunnels and 
bridges, and the road-beds throughout Spain are of a better grade 
than the average railroad throughout the United States. Instead of 
scattering a few cartloads of pebbles along a graded way and calling 
it a ' stone-ballasted ' track, as is prevalent in America, these Spanish 
and French engineers build a good solid bed of rock and lay the rails 
upon a secure foundation. Not only have the French railroads pene- 
trated into southern Spain, and even to its southern seaport, but they 
have leaped the Mediterranean and run clown into Africa, even toward 
the great and dreary desert. 

" The chief railway lines are the ' Ferro-carril del Norte' and the 
c Fcrro-carriles de Andalucia.' Two lines enter Spain from France : 



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I'liiiiiriii.'iiiiiiiiiiiii!' 



SOMETHING PRELIMINARY. 23 

the most direct to Madrid being that via Biarritz, Irun, and Hendaye. 
and the other gathering together the various lines of southern and 
eastern France, and converging at Barcelona. Thence a line runs 
entirely to Tarragona, Valencia, and Murcia, connecting with cross- 
country lines for Madrid ; a line from Barcelona to Madrid, — the direct 
coming down through San Sebastian, Burgos, and Valencia, for Madrid, 
other laterals branching off at Palencia for Oviedo and Corunnaon the 
Bay of Biscay and the Portuguese system ; an easterly line for Por- 
tugal, two southeasterly via Ciudad Real and Badajos. The Anda- 
lusian system runs southerly through Cordova and Seville to Cadiz, 
with branches right and left at Huelva, Granada, and Malaga. With 
railways constructed and projected, Spain is already well covered with 
a network, in connection with the Portuguese system, that enables one 
to reach nearly every desirable section of the land. 

" Much riding may yet be done in diligences, if one likes that kind 
of travelling' ; but for my part, if any place can be reached by rail, 
I avoid the diligence. Some towns and cities can be reached only 
by diligence, such as Guadix, Baza, Alhama, and Ronda ; but it is 
pleasanter to attempt them by horseback trips, or on donkey-back, than 
to take the discomfort of that conveyance. The average speed of the 
railway trains is about fifteen miles an hour ; of the express trains 
nearly twice that. The diligence aims to cover some thirty to forty 
miles a day, the rate of speed being about a league an hour. Dear 
as is railway travelling in Spain, it is much dearer by diligence, much 
dirtier and dustier. Horseflesh — that is, the sort on hire in every 
town — is very cheap A horse for an all-day jaunt in Granada costs a 
dollar, or a dollar and a half, while a donkey would rent for about sixty 
cents. With a horse or donkey you will generally need a boy or man 
as guide and hostler, and his services cost about the same as those of 
the beast. Entertainment for man and beast in the towns and villages 
is quite cheap, both as to price and quality, the mesones (or hostel ries) 
giving little attention to the stranger, and expecting scant remuneration." 



24 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 



We saw that our new friend the Judge was of that loquacious 
kind that likes to give you good measure for your money; but as 
he was giving us very valuable information, we let him run on. The 
Professor finally managed to squeeze in the important question : " How 
do we reach Spain from Paris ? " 

" Oh," said the Judge, "as to reaching Spain; if there were 

a direct line from Amer- 
ica to Cadiz, that would 
be the best winter route, 
or even if there were a re- 
spectable line to Bordeaux. 
The only steam lines to 
be depended upon are the 
English to Liverpool and 
other ports, and thence 
through France. The In- 
man line, with its new 
boats, now offers probably 
the best opportunities for 
crossing the ocean, and it 
is to be regretted that one 
equally good is not estab- 
lished between New York 
and the ports of southern 
Europe. The more south- 
ern the route, the shorter 
it is and the smoother the 
sea. I met in Algiers two 
gentlemen who had just 
made the voyage from Brazil to Spain via the Azores and Portugal, 
and who had smooth seas and summer airs (in March) the entire voy- 
age. Taking Paris as an objective point, one may here find for salr 




TALLY-HO. 



SOME THING PRELIMINA R V. 25 

a great variety of excursions, including Italy, Algiers, Spain, and 
Portugal, at prices varying from sixty dollars to three hundred. 
These tours are carefully arranged, offering a great number of com- 
binations, and at prices about two thirds the regular rates. If you 
will come with me to Rue Scribe, I will introduce you to a ticket- 
seller who will give you any itinerary and route you wish, and you 
can leave to-morrow — or to-day, for that matter." 

So with the Judge we went along, and in half an hour had selected 
our line of travel, bought our tickets, and were on our way back to the 
hotel to pack for Spain. 




CHAPTER II. 

BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 

N a Saturday evening, just as Paris was beginning to feel 
the tag-end of a rude blizzard that must have wandered 
across the Atlantic, we took a cab for the station and 
boarded the night-train for Bordeaux. As we went up 
to the window to have our tickets vised, a silver-haired 
gentleman stepped in front of us and ordered a ticket 
for Madrid. Then he turned and confronted us with a cheery smile; 
for it was none other than our new and valued friend the Judge. 
11 Goino- to Madrid ? " we both asked him at once. 
" Yes ; at all events, as far as San Sebastian." 
" Then we can go together ? " 

"Of course. I'm going along to look after you, — that is, with 
your consent. Having been in Spain years ago, I think I can be of 

service to you." 

We were overjoyed, and full half the terrors of the journey vanished 
at once before the cheery countenance of the Judge. Our luggage 
was duly registered, our numerous valises, " grips," etc., stowed away 
in the racks, and after the guard had closed the door we found we 
were locked in for the night; in fact, we were only let out at day- 
light next morning, when the train halted for a rest of less than five 

minutes. 

The entrance into Spain via Bordeaux and Irun is more direct 
than via Barcelona, being a long night's run, say thirteen to fifteen 




w 

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p 

a 

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BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 2 g 

hours, from Paris to the frontier. Just as the landscapes become most 
pleasing, as we reach the provinces south of Bordeaux, we are about 
preparing to leave La Belle France, and at Bayou ne our Spanish 
journey looms ahead of us. 

The grand watering-places of the trans-Pyrenean Spaniards is that 
delightful little Biarritz, with its three sandy beaches, its attractive 
scenery, and delicious climate. All the Madrilenos who don't come 
up to San Sebastian for sea air, come to Biarritz. The last town on 
the French frontier is Hendaye, on the banks of the Bidassoa, where 
all passengers change cars, the French and Spanish railways being of 
different gauge. The Spaniards are not in such terror of invasion 
from France as the English ; but they would not let the French engi- 
neers run an unbroken track from Paris to Madrid, so they astutely 
stipulated for a broader gauge than in France, and with this conces- 
sion the Gauls built the road as they liked. In the river Bidassoa, 
which here separates France and Spain, is the Isle of Conference, 
where in 1660 Louis XIV. met Maria Theresa a few days before 
their marriage. Several other royal marriages were negotiated there, 
and in 1526 Francis I. of France was exchanged here for his two sons 
as hostages, by Charles V. of Spain. 

The first town over the Spanish line is Irun (pronounced here 
Ee-roori) where the Spanish customs officials make a pretence of 
" going through " your luggage. No passport is demanded, and the 
detention from the officials is slight. The scenery through this sec- 
tion is soft and pleasing, and especially so around Hendaye and Biarritz. 
The distance from Irun to Madrid is 397 miles, and the fare, first class, 
is 7 3 pesetas ; second class, ^pesetas. 

The nearer we approached to Spain the more valuable appeared 
to us our new friend the Judge. In truth, he became all but indis- 
pensable. We were of course well provided with guide-books, phrase- 
books, and Spanish grammars ; but the Judge was a veritable walking 
dictionary, and always had ready at hand just what we desired most 



3° 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



to know. At this juncture his observations on the monetary system 
of Spain were most timely, as follow below. 

" A person can do Spain," he said, " ' hook or crook,' in a few weeks. 




—^ - ri. rij4i:. 



AGU VDORES. 



Indeed, I think a certain American lady wrote a book on ' Ten Days 
in Spain/ which contained, by the way, more information about the 
authoress than about Spain, — as was to be expected. The money you 



BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 3 1 

will be called upon to deliver will be Spanish silver ; gold is seldom 
seen, though bank-notes are extensively circulated. To an American, 
the monetary system of Spain is simplicity itself, but to an Englishman 
it is troublesome. The peseta, a silver coin worth twenty cents, is the 
unit of value, and this contains four reales, or one hundred centimos. 
Five pesetas, or twenty realcs, equal one duro or dollar ; and these with 
the escudo, or half dollar, of ten realcs, comprise the current silver coins. 
Many local terms remain to designate coins, especially the copper. 
A cuarto is about half a cent, two cuartos being equal to one cent or 
five centimos, while ten centimos are equal to an English penny. The 
people have their own peculiar terms ; as, for instance, the double 
cuarto is sometimes called a perro gordo, or s fat dog,' while the small 
c7carto, called also the cuartilla, is locally known as perra gorda (femi- 
nine ' fat dog '). Why these queer distinctions nobody knows. I 
remember how puzzled I was the first time I heard the cuarto called 
a perra gorda. < It was one day in the elm-grove of the Alhambra : a 
gypsy girl passed me, and holding out a rose, said I could have it for 
a perra gorda ; and I of course bothered over it a long time before 
I perceived her meaning." 

In this connection, and for the guidance of all who may follow in 
our footsteps, we will add some useful hints regarding travel in this 
country so little known in America. 

" As to the safety of the traveller in Spain," continued the Judge, 
" there is perhaps no other country where it is better assured. I was 
most agreeably disappointed in my first visit, having been told such 
stories regarding the brigands and bandits that it was with great reluc- 
tance I left behind me, at home, my old and well-tried revolver. It had 
been carried by me in Mexico, as also in the West Indies, and I was 
somewhat attached to it ; so when told that fire-arms were the first 
things confiscated by the customs authorities when searching trunks, I 
decided to leave it at home. Many a time, in thinking the matter 
over, did I regret not having taken it, especially as the authorities 



32 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

never ransacked my trunk, and showed no disposition to confiscate. 
But, as it turned out, the revolver would have been a useless burden, 
and was better off in the States. Though I have been in many places 
that offered every opportunity for robber and cut-throat, I have always 
met with civility and a degree of hospitality. 

11 It is one thing to sit down calmly and speak of travel after you are 
nearly over with it, and another to write in the heat of the conflict with 
obtuse ticket-agents and obstinate porters. The general continental 
railway system of itself is sufficiently exasperating to an American, 
and it takes him some time to get adjusted. The obsolete coaches, 
the officious guards, the snail speed of the trains, and the indolent 
manner of doing business, — all these combine to make the whole 
thing appear ridiculous. 

"To this day, the people of the continent stand in dread and awe 
of the railway system, and especially of the railway trains. They, one 
and all, view it as some great monster that has somehow sot into the 
land, that is going up and down, taking them to different points at its 
own pleasure and on sufferance merely. What favors it grants them 
the poor public accept with gratitude and bow their heads, even hide 
their faces at its approach. Their anxiety to be on hand for the train 
at least an hour before its time of departure is something ludicrous to 
a stranger, — until he ceases to become a stranger and has dwelt on the 
continent a little while; then he too is pervaded with the same anxiety. 
Alter a while I found that I had become afflicted with the same dis- 
ease ; that if the train was to start at seven the next morning, I was 
quite restless all the night and must have my breakfast at five. If I 
could not get to the station at least half an hour before the train was 
due to leave, and have my luggage weighed and registered twenty 
minutes before the whistle sounded, I was in a state of feverish anxiety, 
only allayed when safe in my seat and the door of the compartment 
closed to all outsiders. Notwithstanding, however, the demonstrations 
of the excited travellers, the railway officials themselves never allow 



BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 33 

anything to accelerate their movements. The ticket-seller waits till 
the last moment before he throws up the window, and then he is not 
ready for business ; he must first light a cigarette. When that is well 
alight, and after he has taken a puff or two, he turns languidly toward 
the window, draws in your money, looks it over, tweaks the bills or 
rings the silver on the ledge, then hunts around for the ticket you ask 
for, gives you your change, passes the compliments of the day with 
you, bows, waves his hand politely, and then turns to his cigarette, at 
which he puffs a little before serving the next in line. The Spaniards, 
I am bound to say, are very patient under this infliction, knowing that 
in the same position and under the same circumstances they would 
act in precisely the same way. 

" With your ticket (billete) in your hand you hunt up your trunk 
(haul) or valise (nzalela) ; and a porter, with his number in brass letters 
on his cap, generally stands ready to aid you. Give him your ticket 
and he will seek out the trunk, get another official to weigh it, and 
motion you to the little window of a little office, inside w 7 hich sits the 
master of ceremonies, who takes the weight given him by the porter, 
enters it in a book, writes on a slip of paper the weight, charge, and 
number, and gives this to you along with your ticket, at a cost of a 
penny for registering, together with excess of luggage ; this you pay, 
and then gather up your small things (unless in charge of a porter) 
and go into the waiting-room, — the sala de descanso. To check your 
baggage is registrar or facturar, which operation is complete when the 
' dab ' is on the trunk. It is then perfectly safe, and you can claim it 
at your destination whenever you like, a charge of not more than a 
penny a day being made for storage. 

" This is a slow process, to be sure, but a long way in advance of the 
English, who don't give you any receipt at all, and slam your luo-o-ao-e 
around as though it never had an owner, and was part of the general 
wealth of the nation. Though the English are more liberal in the 
amount allowed than the French and Spanish (and especially the 

3 



34 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 



Italians, who are not yet civilized enough to allow anything), yet they 
give you no security whatever for your ' boxes,' but are as ready to 
turn them over to any one else as to the lawful owner. 

" Your ticket carries sixty pounds of luggage, first or second class, 
and all over that will cost you from ten to twenty cents per pound. In 
my last journey from Madrid northward my luggage was found to ex- 
ceed by a fraction less than two pounds, and the baggage-master kindly 
allowed me to open my trunk and pocket that excess while it was in 

the station. 

" I do not recall any apparent attempt on the part of the officials to 
extort money from me by alleged overweight ; but the rules they are 




A FISH-BOY 




A TERRIBLE FALL. 



BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 



37 



obliged to observe seem to allow them no discrimination in the matter. 
In my case, it was only the weight of a Spanish' dictionary that made 
the difference between the prescribed weight and excess. In America, 
of course, no question would have been raised over such a trifling 
difference ; but it is useless to attempt to ridicule these Spaniards out 
of their notions of duty ; an excess is an excess, and they calculate it to 
a fraction, according to the printed rules sent out for their guidance. 
You can take as much luggage into the car with you as you can carry 
in both hands, with a stout porter to assist you ; and the porter, though 
an official of the road, will calmly stow away for you in the racks and 
on the seats and under them, a hundred weight of baggage, without a 
murmur, provided you press his palm with a real as he leaves you. 
Custom, merely, guides these people; and as it is the custom to charge 
excess on everything carried in the baggage and over sixty pounds in 
weight, so it is customary to admit twice that weight with passengers 
in the coach, provided it be not in the shape of a trunk. 

" I will not deny that I have remonstrated with those hard-headed 
officials, and hurled at their heads some of the hardest words in this 
language, — for what is the good of a language if you can't fling it 
around occasionally? — but I have long since seen the futility of it. 
So now I pack all my heavy articles in the valises and l grips,' and let 
the porters do the hard talking. ' Ah, senor,' they would say to me, 
with a waggish tip of the head, ' la maleta pesa muclio ; que pesa ! es 
oro o plata?" — ' How much the gentleman's valise weighs! is it filled 
with gold or silver ? ' " 

As the reader may have already perceived, our equipage (pro- 
nounced ay-kee-pali-hay) is likely to cause us much bother; but, in 
view of the pleasure a well-stored trunk affords the "folks at home," 
when once it is landed and opened for their inspection, the little 
trouble by the way is as nothing. 

" The mules and the diligence have for centuries been the great 
carriers of Spain, and a picturesque mode of travel it is, too. It is 



$8 GAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

wonderful how the Spanish mules survive the blows with which they 
are overwhelmed. If they had only to bear the brunt of the zagal s 
blows, it would not matter ; but the established usage of the country 
secures to them a large additional supply, and no one armed with a 
stick fails to contribute his share. The zagal wears a light and simple 
costume : a kerchief tied round the head, a colored shirt, cotton-velvet 
pants, a striped waistband, and sandals of spun flax. This functionary 
is always furnished with a supple stick, stuck in his waistband and 
carried behind his back, — like the wand of a harlequin, the badge of 
his profession. 

" The delantero (or postilion) is thus named because he rides in front, 
on the leading near-side mule. He rejoices in the cognomen of ' the 
condemned,' as his toil is incessant. Formerly he spent forty-eight 
hours in the saddle, and at times more. He usually wears a cap of 
lambskin, which imparts a most savage expression to his bronzed face. 
The staff of attendants was formerly considered incomplete without 
the escopeteros, a name given to two gendarmes charged with the pro- 
tection of the travellers in case of attack, and who, seated on the top of 
the coach, commanded the route. 

" Throughout the entire journey the mayoral and zagal keep shout- 
ing to the mules, addressing them each by name, sometimes in 
friendly, sometimes in threatening tones, according to circumstances, 
in this style: 'Colonel, on arriving I will make me a cap of your skin.' 
Night does not stop the discordant sounds, and even when the mayoral 
had succumbed to sleep one heard him murmuring: ' Capitanaaa . . . 
comisariooo . . . raa . . . puliaaa . . . bandolero . . . arre carbon- 
eraaa,' etc., until he was quite overcome, when he was ably supported 
by the zagal 

"The diligence offers the most aristocratic mode of travelling, as 
it is only found on the king's highways. More correctly, its journeys 
have become extremely select, for since railways have furrowed Spain, 
this superannuated vehicle has almost entirely disappeared. Besides 




A FAMILY PARTY. 



BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 



41 



the inconvenience we have pointed out, there is the constant danger of 
the coach upsetting ; at such times the mayoral escapes by paying a 
fine of about sixty francs. Twice in our travels we were upset without 
suffering any serious inconvenience ; but passengers are not always so 
fortunate. When travelling from Barcelona to Valencia we passed a 
frightful ravine, into which a diligence had been precipitated, carrying 
in its fall both travellers and horses. 

" Having dropped some hints as to the mode of travel in Spain, it 
may be as well to mention the seasons in which it is best to travel. 
There is such diversity of surface and climate, that the visitor may suit 
himself as to either in whatever season he may arrive. 

" As we generally seek a southern climate in order to get rid of the 
rigors of winter, this season is, all things considered, the best in which 
to visit the southern part of Spain. In autumn, the northern and 
western portions, working down toward Andalusia as winter comes 
on ; for midwinter, Seville, Malaga, and the coast cities of the Medi- 
terranean ; but for possible rains, the early spring months for 
Granada and the hill towns of Andalusia. The months of April and 
May will be found well-nigh perfect in any part of Spain south of 
Toledo, with May and June for the more northern portions. The 
summer heat of Seville and such cities is intense, and no stranger 
should allow himself there at that time." 

There ! Now you have, thanks to the Judge, full directions for 
spending a summer in Spain. To return now to our journey. Our 
first halt was at San Sebastian. This is a beautiful little city of twenty 
thousand inhabitants, built on an isthmus at the foot of a high hill 
defended by a castle. It is the fashionable watering-place of Spain, 
bright, clean, airy, but wholly un-Spanish in appearance. The streets 
are broad, a tramline runs throughout the town, the hotels are excel- 
lent, and the people attractive. There is a good theatre here, a 
magnificent casino, and an apology for a bull-ring. In appearance the 
town is more French than Spanish, and even the language of the 



42 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

inhabitants does not readily suggest that noble tongue spoken a little 
way farther on ; that is, among those you first meet at the station, 
such as the porters, hack and omnibus drivers, and hotel runners. 
For, though in Spain, we are in a portion of that country known as 
the Basque region, which contains the descendants of the oldest people 
of Hispania. 

If we may believe the Basques themselves, they claim direct de- 
scent from Noah and Tubal, and have lived here, they and their 
ancestors, since the epoch of the great flood. It is conceded that the 
Basque is the primitive race of Spain, — an unconquered race. The 
Moorish invasion, somehow, and the Gothic, passed by them, and left 
them here with the customs, traditions, and language of earliest times. 
They are fine people physically, honest, hospitable (it is said), and 
truthful. Their customs and costumes are quaint, and proclaim their 
long adherence to a fixed place of residence. They are proud of their 
ancestry, many claiming a descent from noble houses, and great 
sticklers on ceremony. In the midst of the fashion and gayety of the 
visitors from France and Madrid these people preserve their simple 
ways, their ancient usages and games. The great game here, that is 
with them a passion, is that called jtcego de pelota, a kind of five-court, 
for the playing of which they have a fine ball-ground not far from the 
centre of the town. 

Philologists affirm that the Basque language was once the universal 
idiom of all Spain, that there are at least two thousand Spanish words 
derived from Basque, and the Basques themselves are the remnant of 
its primitive people. It is said to be very difficult to acquire, and we 
are told that his satanic majesty himself spent several years in a fruit- 
less effort to gain a knowledge of it. One writer says that the Basques 
seem to understand each other's speech, but that he does n't believe 
they do. For instance, "they will write Solomon and pronounce it 
Nebuchadnezzar." The Basques declare that theirs was the language 
of Adam in Paradise, and brought to Spain by Tubal. Humboldt, 



BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 43 

who studied the Basque, believed it to be the ancient language of 
Iberia (old Spain), and there are some who think it related to the Celtic. 
Another, a French writer, affirms his belief that it is identical with, or 
similar to, the speech of one of the Berber tribes of North Africa. At 
all events, it is interesting, and is the one tongue or idiom that has 
held its own in the various mutations of Spain. With the Bay of 
Biscay at their back and the Pyrenees on their flank, the Basques 
combine the characteristics of the hardy followers of the sea and the 
sturdy mountaineers. 

Quite unexpectedly we met with friends in the first Spanish town 
we visited. Happening to bethink ourselves that there was an Ameri- 
can missionary station in San Sebastian, we called to pay our respects 
to the missionaries, and found that the Rev. W. H. Gulick and his 
wife were from our own State, and that they knew many people with 
whom we were acquainted. Without knowing whether we were 
Catholic or Protestant, or indeed whether we had any religion at all, 
they invited us to tarry with them awhile and take a look at the 
Basque country. Needless to add that we accepted an invitation like 
this, and that we thoroughly enjoyed every hour of our stay. 

San Sebastian is a bright and attractive town, and advantageously 
situated for an educational work like that in which Mr. and Mrs. Gulick 
are engaged. For missionary work is educational, let it be called 
what it may. In its very essence it is helpful, whether it proceed 
along denominational lines or not. The work here undertaken is 
educational in its best and highest sense, inasmuch as it operates 
mainly among the poor and neglected. We wish our readers could 
have looked in at the party gathered within the walls of the school on 
the evening of our arrival. They would have seen such a gathering of 
beautiful, bright-eyed children as would have warmed a heart of sole- 
leather. We don't know how many, but a large roomful were assem- 
bled. The games they played, the poetry they recited, the songs they 
sung, were all Spanish, but the music and mirth were in a language 



44 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



universal, and alike infectious. A more delightful and thoroughly 
heart-warming entertainment we never attended. The next day we 
had opportunity to look in at the school in session, and were struck 




NATIVES. 



with admiration at the proficiency of the pupils, even in studies far 
advanced. Some of the girls gave us a dialogue in English, and the 
effect of this rough tongue of ours being caressed by lips accustomed 
to the liquid and sonorous Spanish was most delicious. Their cal- 



BEYOND THE PYRENEES. 45 

isthenic exercises were complicated (to an inexperienced eye) and 
perfect ; limbs and bodies in harmony to music, and in rhythmic 
motion. 

Sitting as spectators of these exercises, with those threescore 
happy children before us, the embodiment of health and happiness, 
with the intellectual sunlight dancing in their eyes, and the eagerness 
for knowledge manifested in their work, we allowed ourselves to specu- 
late upon the possible future of Spain, with a thousand such influences 
as these working upon her masses. The people of Spain are a 
noble people; they have in them the material for great achievements; 
they are frank and sympathetic. They are not, like too many of 
our Northern races, sour and churlish ; they are amenable to good 
influences. 

There was one feature of the proposed work of this missionary 
station of which we may write with propriety, and that is, a projected 
summer school of languages and music. The situation of San Sebas- 
tian gives it a delightful summer climate, as well as winter, and a 
sojourn here between July and October would be in the height of 
the season. In order to raise a little money to assist needy Spanish 
students, Mr. and Mrs. Gulick propose having classes in Spanish, 
English, French, German, and Italian, and also in music. The terms, 
for board, lodging, and instruction, will be placed very low, much 
below the ordinary hotel rates, and thus a visitor may carry on special 
studies, while enjoying the delights of a Spanish seaside resort. 

San Sebastian presents a good coigne of vantage for the stranger 
desiring to visit in Spain, as being so near the French frontier and 
yet with most picturesque and interesting country within easy reach. 
The finest natural feature here we have not mentioned, and that is the 
beautiful bay, called Concha (or Shell), circling round from the castle- 
crowned height above the town to another tower-topped hill just 
distant enough to give perfect background. The path up to the foot 
is one of the prettiest walks in the world, first through the old town 



46 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

along the hillside, then above the harbor-basin and through a forest 
of fine trees, at last out upon the breezy seaside slopes, with a view of 
the lovely bay beneath, and a glorious sweep of ocean beyond. 

The seaside slope is thickly sown with graves, for here the French 
made their last stand against the English armies in 1813, before they 
were driven over the frontier by Wellington. 

One of our excursions, through the kindness of our friends, and 
in their company, was to the little town of Pasage, from the land- 
locked harbor of which the great Lafayette sailed for America. The 
hills all about are beautifully green, dotted with white chalets, and the 
gardens are filled with the trees and flowers of a Southern clime. 

The soft atmosphere of the South seems to bestow upon this region 
its delights, even though the rugged Pyrenees are not far away. 




CHAPTER III. 

SOUTH THROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 

NE might spend several weeks in San Sebastian, espe- 
cially in the bathing season, and put his spare time into 
excursions into the country ; for various diligence lines 
lead out, and the roads are fairly good. Pasage (pro- 
nounced Pah-saJi-hay) we have already mentioned, with 
its land-locked basin, surrounded by the quaintest of me- 
diaeval buildings, many of them belonging to the descendants of noble 
families, whose escudos (or coats-of-arms) are carved above the windows 
and doorways. The one street on each side the harbor is narrow and 
crooked. The people are primitive, almost archaic, in their customs and 
habits. We recall the old church, where we saw the floor covered with 
wax tapers in coils, each length of taper wound about a small tablet sup- 
ported on short legs, and where the hundred tapers sticking up looked 
like the heads of so many coiled snakes. An old man was twistino- 
cordage under the shadow of the church, and a group of washerwomen 
were having a lively time at a fountain in an angle of the road. We 
wandered through the cool streets, took photographs of the picturesque 
bits, and then retired to a cafe overlooking and overhanging the water 
where we sat awhile and took in the beauty of the sunset-lighted bay. 
The place was famous for its chocolate and wafers ; but we did not 
get any, because the girl delayed waiting upon us until our patience 
was exhausted and we left. Little scenes like this, simple, restful, full 
of happy incident, are part of our Spanish legacy. We love to dwell 



48 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

upon them, walk in imagination through the cool plazas, and converse 
again with the courteous, simple-minded people. 

Striking southward from San Sebastian, let us gather up some 




A FAMILY OF TRAVELLING MUSICIANS. 



scattered links in the chain of cities leading to Madrid. At first, even 
for a whole day's journey by rail, the scenery is suggestive of Swiss 
and Alpine regions ; the road leads through numerous tunnels, winds 



SOUTH THROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 49 

over hills and through valleys ; hills and valleys green and fruitful, the 
white houses of the farmers and the husbandmen gleaming on the 
hillsides. Not many cities, but forests of oak and chestnut, and 
broad fields of grain, with here and there a mountain overlooking, — 
such is the character of the central of the border provinces of Spain ; 
in the east they are more arid, and in the west more rugged. 

Three hundred miles from Madrid we find Vitoria, celebrated in 
modern history as the scene of Wellington's great victory over the 
French in 181 3, when he drove Joseph Bonaparte, nicknamed Papa 
Bote (or Father Bottle), flying toward the border, and recaptured im- 
mense plunder which the miserable French had taken from convents 
and churches. At San Sebastian Wellington put the finishing touches 
to his long campaign in Spain, and after great slaughter sent the Gauls 
back to France, never to return in the character of invaders again. 
Below the citadel of San Sebastian, on the hillside facing the sea, are 
the graves and tombs of the English soldiers who perished in that 
great struggle. It was a glorious victory for Wellington, but had an 
inglorious sequence, as the brutal English soldiery broke loose from 
all restraint, and revelled in lust and carnage, setting the city on fire, 
and outraging the defenceless inhabitants. 

Above the town of Miranda, where there is a fine station building, 
are the ruins of a castle to which, tradition relates, the ill-fated Don 
Roderick, last of the Goths, brought the beautiful Florinda ; but why 
he brought her here, or when, history does not inform us. The truth 
is, he did n't come here at all. The scenery grows wilder and more 
suggestive of stern Castilian character beyond Miranda, and in the 
gorge of Pancorbo we have that Cimmerian gloom that Dore delighted 
to sketch, and which he depicted in his sketches of Spain. 

Little by little the green woods and pastures lose their freshness, 
the trees dwindle away, the hills take on a hue of sadness, and at 
Burgos, at least, we have entered upon the wind-swept plains that ex- 
tend, with variety only of rugged, serrated hills and shallow rivers, to 

4 



5o 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 



and beyond Madrid. A city we did not visit, nor had much inclina- 
tion to, though the founding of it and its early years were fraught 
with historic incident, is Leon, lying away to the westward of the 
main line to the Spanish capital, two hundred and fifty miles from 
Madrid. It has one of the grandest cathedrals of the North, and was 
at one time the centre of Christian power, whence went out the armies 
that arrested, then turned, then shattered, the forces of Islam. 

Another city, on the railroad line one hundred and fifty miles north 
of Madrid, we cannot pass by without mention. This is Valladolid, 
founded in the eleventh century, and once the Castilian capital, — at 
least, the royal residence, at times, of some of the kings of Spain. Its 
climate is rather milder than that of Burgos, and more salubrious than 
that of Madrid, but it has the dead-and-alive appearance of the former, 
and the latter has sapped its vitality forever. Valladolid has interest- 
ing churches, many most magnificent, besides a museum of sculpture 
and paintings ; though the royal galleries of Madrid eclipse these latter, 
and they are rarely visited by tourists. Historically, Valladolid has a 
hold on the world on account of the great personages who have lived, 
labored, or died here. Ferdinand and Isabella were married here Oct. 
18, 1469; Columbus died here May 20, 1506; Philip II. was born here 
May, 1527, and here presided over, thirty-two years later (May 21, 
1559), the first of the autos da fe, in which numbers of hated Luther- 
ans were burned at the stake. He burned his thousands, later on, 
before his accursed life came to an end ; but it was in Valladolid, in 
the Plaza Mayor, that the flame was lighted which spread all over 
Spain, destroying the best oft its population, scorching its art and 
literature, lapping the life-blood of its citizens, and paralyzing its every 
industry. With one hand the great Philip builded, with the other he 
applied the torch, until we see the result to-day throughout Spain in 
the billions locked up in stone structure, useless convents and cathe- 
drals, and in an impoverished population begging for bread in a land 
intended by God as the granary and vineyard of the world. From a 



SOUTH THROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 5 I 

wealthy city of one hundred thousand inhabitants in Philip's time, 
Valladolid has sunk to its present pitiable condition. Our interest in 
this place centred in the facts that Columbus died here and Cervantes 
at one time lived here. The house of Cervantes is said to be No. 1 1 
in the Plazuela del Rastro, that where Columbus died, No. 2 Calle 
Ancha de Magdalena. It is a plain-sided structure, without a note- 
worthy feature, the most prominent thing upon it being the sign of 
a milk merchant over the doors: " Leche de Burra y Vaca [cows' and 
asses' milk] for sale here." 

Six years the remains of the great admiral remained at Valladolid, 
in the convent of San Francisco, after which they were taken to 
Seville, thence to San Domingo, in 1536; and in 1795 were supposed 
to be transferred to Havana. The churches and convents of Valla- 
dolid are worthy of visit, also its library ; but its chief interest lies in 
its mortuary memorials : in the death of martyrs to fanaticism, and in 
the death of Columbus, victim of a king's ingratitude. The gloom 
that surrounds it will never be raised, for it was so written by its 
founders and inhabitants. 

Twenty-five miles farther south we reach Medina del Campo, the 
once famous City of the Plain, more celebrated now as the junction 
station of a railroad which will take us, going east, to the very ancient 
city of Segovia, and west, to the wonderful city of Salamanca. In the 
castle of La Mota, of Medina, Caesar Borgia was confined two years, 
and Isabella the Catholic died there in 1504, says a reputable writer 
on Spain. It is related that when Charles V. passed through there 
on one of his journeys, a rich banker sought to do him honor by 
burning in the braseros (braziers) incense of cinnamon from Ceylon, 
then worth its weight in gold, instead of olive-nuts, which it was cus- 
tomary to use. The brasero, by the way, you will find in use every- 
where in cool weather, generally placed beneath the table around 
which the company sits at meat or conversation, and sending forth 
charcoal fumes dense enough to asphyxiate a roomful of people. 



52 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

While journeying on horseback to Salamanca our party fell in 
with a mysterious-looking individual riding upon a splendid black 
mare. As for himself, he was a powerfully-built, jolly fellow about 
thirty years of age, wearing a costume not unlike that of an Andalusian 
majo, while his querida was mounted behind him. It was not long 
before we became friends with this bold trader, who when assured 
that we were neither government servants nor carabineros (custom- 
house officers), but simply franchu tes, — such is the nickname given by 
the peasantry to the French, — soon made us acquainted with some 
of the mysteries of his daring craft. The first operation of the con- 
trabandista consists in his proceeding to Gibraltar to lay in his stock 
of w r ares. It is generally the Jews who supply him with the articles 
in demand, — muslin, silk handkerchiefs, cigars, tobacco, etc. So far, 
nothing is safer or simpler in trade, but the difficulty is how to intro- 
duce them into Spanish territory ; but there is the corredor, who is 
able to solve the problem. This agent is a person who has found 
it necessary, on account of his peculiar peccadilloes, to take up his 
abode in Gibraltar. The industry of this middle-man consists in 
removing the obstacles which conscientiously-disposed customs offi- 
cers might set up. A few pesetas here, and a few pesetas there, 
silently dropped into the hands of certain ornaments of justice and 
guardians of revenue, renders them unable to discover the contents 
of the alforjas, or the nature of the articles concealed beneath the 
aparcjo of the mules. It sometimes happens that the corrcdor under- 
takes operations on a much larger scale, on account of important 
mercantile firms. 

Our more modest contrabandista contents himself by taking a few 
loads of silk handkerchiefs or tobacco, and as soon as he has crossed 
the frontier he joins his comrades, and the caravan sets off on the 
march, taking care to travel only at night, halting during daylight in 
the cortijadas (or isolated farms), or in villages where they have trusty 
friends. These hardy smugglers know all the most difficult passes 




SMUGGLERS. 



SOUTH THROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 55 

of the sierras, which they some of them cross with burdens on their 
backs and carbines slung over their shoulders, clinging with their 
hands to the projecting ledges on the perpendicular rocks. Strange 
to relate, these traders are often on the best of terms with the authori- 
ties of the villages through which they pass, never neglecting to offer 
a packet of fragrant cigars to the alcalde, tobacco to his scribe, and 
an attractive silk handkerchief to la sehora alcaldesa. They almost 
always reach their destination without let or hindrance. Nevertheless, 
they are at times surprised by a band of carabincros, when they wake 
the echoes of the sierras with the reports of their relacos. This, how- 
ever, is a very rare occurrence, as it pays better to settle amicably with 
their easily-pacified foes, who are always open to the magic influence 
of a few duros. Arrived at the termination of his journey, the trader 
delivers up his wares to his constituents, who sell them on joint 
account ; but it sometimes happens that the tobacco and cigars are 
sold for the trader's sole benefit. 

This daring adventurer, when not engaged in commerce, devotes 
his hours of leisure to spending with reckless prodigality the money 
he has gained at the peril of his life. He passes his time at the 
taberna, either playing at monte (a game at cards of which he is pas- 
sionately fond), or in relating his adventures, taking care to moisten 
his narrative with frequent bumpers of sherry, rcmojar la palabra 
(to soften his words), according to the common Andalusian phrase. 
As might naturally be expected, and notwithstanding his brilliant 
opportunities, the contrabandist who does the work rarely accumu- 
lates a fortune, while wealth and honor seem to wait upon the hacienta 
with whom he shares his gains. He frequently ends his days either 
in prison or in the presidio. 

We were assured that many of the smugglers, when trade was 
languid, took to the road and to lightening travellers of their baggage 
and money, — an operation always conducted with the utmost courtesy. 
It is just possible that this report only does them simple justice, as the 



56 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

profession of smuggler is a sort of apprenticeship to that of highway 
robber. 

It is about forty miles to Salamanca, a journey that in days past 
necessitated much jolting in a diligence, but now performed in three 
hours. A dull and dreary college town is Salamanca, with only its 
prestige of greatness and the shells of its once famous university. But 
there is enough of interest here crowded within its confines to occupy 
one as long as he likes. As the world knows, the most brilliant epoch 
of Salamanca was the sixteenth century ; for its university, one of the. 
first in Europe, both in importance and in its foundation, dates from 
the fourteenth century. It was founded by Alphonso, ninth king of 
Leon, and was second only to that of Paris, ranking with Oxford and 
Bologna. A portion of its cathedral dates from the twelfth century, 
and there are several convents and colleges of the next and the four- 
teenth centuries. In the cathedral are valuable carvings, and among 
other relics, the veritable crucifix carried by the Cid Campeador at his 
saddle-bow in his battles. Of the several convents, all worthy of 
attention, perhaps that of San Estevan, or San Domingo, will attract 
the American visitor, since it was here that Columbus resided two 
years, from 1484 to i486, when he was pleading for authority from the 
catcdraticos for the promulgation of his views respecting the shape 
of the earth. He did not gain it, as the New World knows, and it was 
six years later that he did demonstrate the correctness of his theories 
by the discovery that brought consternation to the ecclesiastics. 

Salamanca abounds not only in numerous buildings of a public 
character, but in private houses of ostentatious and beautiful archi- 
tecture. Perhaps that known as the Casa de las Conchas (or house 
of the shells) is the most curious, covered as its facade is with imita- 
tions of shells. The river upon which the city is situated is crossed 
by a noble bridge of Roman foundation, of the time of Trajan, and 
carries us back to the ancient Salamantica of the Romans, and to the 
pre-Gothic period. 




cpr ^"! »T "17JTJ Axn CATHEDRAL. 



SOUTH iHROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 



59 



East from Medina del Campo about sixty miles is Segovia, anciently 
a Roman city, a fortified place, and with an aqueduct (likewise ascribed 
to the times of Trajan) as its noblest structure. It brings water from 
a point nine miles away, and has arches one hundred feet in height. 




SALAMANCA. 



The grand monuments of Segovia are three in number : the aqueduct 
the alcazar, or Moorish citadel, and its cathedral. The aqueduct is 
eighteen centuries old, the alcazar nine centuries, and the cathedral 
(built 1525) occupies the site of another dating its construction from 
the eleventh. Truly Segovia, with its fine old Gothic residences, its 
grand structures, and its commanding position upon a fortified hill 



60 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

above a' river, should not be passed by any more than Salamanca. 
Readers of " Gil Bias " must note that he was immured in a dungeon 
of the alcazar of Segovia ; and lovers of the picturesque will need no 
other incentive to cause them to visit here. 

Of grand cathedrals, the city of Palencia, on the road from San- 
tander to Medina, possesses one of the grandest in Spain ; and in 
speaking of seats of learning we should not forget that here was 
founded, it is said, the oldest university in Spain, one older than 
Salamanca's ; and again, in Palencia (according to the romance) the 
great and only Cid was married to Ximena. The Cid — as we have 
seen — has been apportioned out pretty well; Burgos claims the 
honor of his birthplace, Salamanca has his battle-crucifix, Valencia 
plumes itself as the place in which he died ; hence, like Burgos, it is 
also la ciudad del Cid Campeador. And yet, the Cid was not one who 
went about mindful of the proverb: Miel en boca, y guarda la bolsa, — 
" honey in the mouth, and a guard on the purse; " but was a swagger- 
ing, swash-buckler sort of a fellow, free with his money and free with 
his blows. 

Of university towns, second to Salamanca only, — surpassing it 
in certain unique features, — is Alcala, situated some twenty miles 
from Madrid, on the road to Zaragossa. A city of Roman foundation, 
it was not given a world-wide reputation until the great Cardinal 
Ximenes established here his university in 15 10, which sprang into 
being almost perfectly equipped for its work, through the genius of 
its founder. The name Alcala is derived from the Arabic Al-Kalat 
(the castle), hence is borne by several other towns once in the posses- 
sion of the Moors, and to distinguish it this one is called Alcala de 
Henares, from the river flowing by it. This ancient rival of Salamanca 
is now quite as defunct as that city, and less known to-day. Yet here 
was one of the most famous universities of its day (which existed until 
fifty years ago, when removed to Madrid), and here was undertaken 
and carried out the most stupendous literary enterprise of the age. 



SOUTH THROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 6l 

We refer to the celebrated polyglot Bible, the great Complutensian 
(so called from Complutum, the Roman name of the town), which was 
printed here in 151 7. A copy is in the Biblioteca at Madrid. It is 
printed in the Hebrew, Latin, Chaldee, Septuagint, Greek, and the 
Vulgate, and the then known world was searched for the ablest 
scholars of the age, who were brought to Alcala and labored here for 
years. This work alone would render Alcala ever memorable ; but 
it has another claim upon the world's attention as the birthplace of 
Cervantes, who first saw the light here in 1547, as attested to by the 
registry of births, still to be seen in the church of Santa Maria. Miguel 
Cervantes himself, probably one of the festive estudiantes of his day, 
wrote lovingly of Alcala and student-life there. 

We don't find them numerous now in Spain, those estudiantes who 
make the student-life a profession, and starve themselves into scare- 
crows, prowling about the country in jolly bands, each one draped in 
rusty cloak and carrying a pandero (or musical instrument). If they 
were not now so scarce, the public would not have such liking for the 
estudiantes who make a living by music at fiestas and fairs. The 
student of olden days is kept in mind by the songs he sung and 
the pranks he played as he serenaded the senoritas and raided the 
market-places. Here is something that epitomizes the student-life of 
Alcala and Salamanca, which we will translate as well as we can : 

" Cuando un estudiante sale 
Al mercado, dia cubierto, 
Los jamones y los embuchados 
Se ponen en movimiento." 

The following is a very free translation : — 

" When a student to the market sallies, 
On a day that 's overcast or stormy, 
All the noble hams and toothsome sausage 
Scramble for a place beyond his clutches." 

From some needy student, we doubt not, came the following 



62 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

lines, which breathe a philosophy none but a Spanish beggar could 

express : — 

" Los pobres mas hambrientos 

Son los mas ricos 

Porque todo lo com en, 

Con apetito ; 

No asi los grandes. 

Que aunque todo les sobra, 

Les falta el hambre. 

" Those who are hungriest, 
Those are the richest, 
Because all they eat 
Is with appetite ; 
Not so the great ones, — 
Though they have overplus, 
Always lack hunger." 

The Judge and the Professor are responsible for this interlarding 
of Spanish proverbs and poetry, for they take delight in the odd and 
the curious. From old books and old people they collected these 
and the following, and now spread them forth for the delectation of 
their friends of the Knockabout family. Here is something about 
the Aragonese, who inhabit the province of Aragon. 

" When an Aragonese is born, his mother knocks him on the 
head with a platter. Should the plate break, he is a choice, hard- 
headed child ; but if not he is looked upon as a soft-head, and a 
probable cause of sorrow." 

Like the Basque province, the Asturias was never subjugated by 
the Moslems. 

We were annoyed greatly, in travelling from one city to another, 
by the frequency of the saints' days in the calendar, because our 
guides and porters insisted upon making them holidays, spending 
them in idleness. Not only the men and women, boys and girls, have 
their favorite saints, but all the lower animals, even the burros (or don- 
keys). Saint Anthony is the donkeys' saint; and on his clay hoi- - 



SOUTH THROUGH LEON AND CASTILE. 



and donkeys are brought before a certain church and ' blessed, and 
small loaves of barley bread given them by the priest. Saint Anthony 
is also the patron of spinsters, for whom he kindly procures hus- 
bands when they desire them. 
When a woman wishes his 
aid, she throws an image of 
the saint to the bottom of a 
well, and tells him to stay 
there till he has got her a 
husband. Many of the people 



have great faith in the stories 
of the saints, and in their 
ability to help them. Many, 
again, live in poverty to pur- 
chase masses for their souls in 
purgatory. Philip IV. ordered 
that one hundred thousand 
masses should be offered for 
him after death, to take him 
through purgatory; if he 
ceased to require them, then 
for his parents, and after they 
had ascended into heaven, for 
those who had been slain in 
the wars of Spain. 

It is related that the Count 
de Villa Medina once gave a piece of gold valued at four dollars to 
a monk who, when he received it, exclaimed, " Ah ! that releases a 
soul from purgatory." He gave him another piece of gold, and 
another, and another, every one of which, the monk declared, re- 
leased a soul from purgatory. 

" Where are they now ? " said the count. 




O-^ 



!3 "H 



R. P1SAM. 



64 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

" Safe in 'heaven, every one." 

" Are you sure ? " 

" Yes ; quite sure." 

" Then," said the count, " give me back my money, for once safe 
in heaven they can never return." 

But the monk kept the money. 

Next to the priest, the escribano (or public letter-writer) is held in 
high estimation by many of the ignorant. This man can sometimes 
be seen on the corners of the streets or beneath a corridor with a 
table and inkhorn, ready to write letters for any one needing his 
services. It is said that his chief employment is in writing love- 
letters for senoritas as well as men ; and about him the following 
lines are written, referring especially to his goose-quill pen : — 

" Pajaros con muchas plumas, 
No se pueden mantener ; 
Los escribanos con una 
Mantienen mozo y muger. 

" Birds with many feathers 
Hardly keep alive ; 
With one plume the writer 
Maintains cook and wife." 

These specimens of Spanish doggerel are given in their own lan- 
guage, because they teach us so much of the habits of thought and 
the customs of the people. Let us now tarry awhile in a city where 
Spanish ballads had their birth. 




BEGGARS. 




CHAPTER IV. 

THE CITY OF THE CID CAMPEADOR. 

AKING a long leap southward from the frontier, we 
enter Old Castile, and seek out the ancient city of 
Burgos, the birthplace of Gothic Spaniards, and the 
cradle of Spanish liberty. We took train at night, 
and then ensued the various incidents of a night by 
rail, — the broken naps, the confused awakenings, the 
hootings, tootings, cries, whistles at the stations ; the intrusions of 
strange passengers who stumble over your legs, beg your pardon 
politely, but firmly possess themselves of the greater portion of the 
seat that you had fancied particularly belonged to you. So it was 
a very jumbled-up portion of a night that passed between the frontier 
and Burgos, and we were by no means sorry when the name of our 
destination was shouted out, even though it was five o'clock in the 
morning, and of a cold, blustering morning at that. 

It was about a mile to the centre of the city, and to the hotel ; 
a pleasant mile, we later found it, leading through long avenues of 
trees, along the banks of the river flowing through the city. Even 
so early as five o'clock in the morning the river-banks were lined 
with washerwomen, hard at work, scrubbing for dear life. Each 
woman had a washing-board made long enough to receive her knees 
and skirts, and over this she leaned, sousing the clothes in the water 
of the swift-flowing stream. We made a very good photograph of 
one of these groups, later in the day, with an old convent as the 



68 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

background and the foaming water in the fore. A strapping maid 
led us to our rooms, ordered coffee, and then left us to a nap of several 
hours, after which we went forth into the city, which was then hum- 
ming with active life. 

We had prepared ourselves to see much in Burgos in the way 
of fine architecture and historical monuments ; nor were we at all 
disappointed. It came fully up to our expectations, though of course 
not exactly the city we had built from readings of history and travel. 
Although the climate is not delightful, especially to one fresh from 
the perfect airs of Andalusia, still the scenes about are not uninter- 
esting. The usual prospect of north-central Spain, of broad plains 
and rounded hills, rewards him who climbs to the castle, the cathedral 
towers, or some other point of observation. 

We fancy the Spaniards would be unable to give a reason for the 
location of many of their cities, especially in the north, where they 
seem to have grown from earliest times without any fitness of scene 
or surroundings. The coast cities have a reason for their situation, 
such as advantages of harbor or point-of-call for merchant vessels; 
so too have many of the cities on rivers, such as Cordova and Seville. 
But here the river is too small for navigation, nor is there any place 
accessible which might be of importance to this by its contiguity. 
We suppose that it presented some features for fortification or defence 
in those early days when it was pitched upon for a settlement. 

And what were those times, and wherefore was Burgos called into 
being? "At the time of the general wreck of Spain, by the sudden 
tempest of Arab invasion," says Irving, in his beautiful Introduction 
to the " Moorish Chronicles/' " many of the inhabitants took refuge 
in the mountains of the Asturias, burying themselves in narrow valleys 
difficult of access, wherever a constant stream of water afforded a 
green bosom of pasture land and scanty fields for cultivation. For 
mutual protection they gathered together in small villages, called 
castros, or castrcllos, with watch-towers and fortresses on impending 




MONASTERY OF LAS HUELGAS. BURGOS. 



THE CITY OF THE CID CAMPEADOR. 7 1 

cliffs, in which they might shelter and defend themselves in case of 
sudden inroad. Thus arose the kingdom of the Asturias, of Pelayo 
and the king's successors, who gradually extended their dominion, 
built towns and cities, and after a time fixed their seat of government 
at the city of Leon. An important part of the region over which 
they bore sway was ancient Cantabria, extending from the Bay of 
Biscay to the Duero, and called Castile from the number of castles 
with which it was studded." 

After a time the Castilians " threw off their allegiance to the 
kingdom of Leon and elected the judges to rule over them, — one 
in a civil and the other in a military capacity. The first who filled 
the stations were Nuno Rasuro and Lain Calvo, two powerful nobles : 
the former descended from Diego Porcallo, a count of Lara ; the 
latter, ancestor of the renowned Cid Campeador." A grandson of 
Nuno Rasuro was Fernan Gonzalez, born about the year 88j, whom 
Irving calls the " most complete hero of his time." 

We are thus particular in introducing these heroes here, because 
their times were most critical in the history of Gothic Spain, and they 
took a leading part in stemming the tide of Moslem invasion. Here, 
in fact, the Gothic Spaniards made a stand not only for freedom, 
but for conquest, and with Fernan Gonzalez begins that long line 
of conquerors that extends in almost unbroken succession down to 
Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella. For six hundred years they 
fought the Moslems, until the last descendant of the Arab invaders 
was driven over into Africa. And this movement for freedom began 
right here in Castile ; in this old city of Burgos lived the famous 
counts of Castile, who maintained perpetual warfare against the 
Moors. When Fernan Gonzalez was but seventeen years old he 
was elected to rule over his fellows, with the title of duke, or count, 
under the name of Alonzo the Great, King of Leon. " A Cortes, 
or assemblage of the nobility of Castile and of the mountains, met 
together at the recently built city of Burgos to do honor to his 



72 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

installation. Scarce was the installation ended, and while Burgos 
was yet abandoned to festivity, the young count, with the impatient 
ardor of youth, caused the trumpets to sound through the streets 
a call to arms. A captain of the Moorish King of Toledo was 
ravaging the territory of Castile at the head of seven thousand troops, 
and against him the youthful count determined to make his first 
campaign." 

He was victorious, killing the Moorish commander with his own 
hand, and securing an immense booty, part of which was brought 
back to Burgos, and part used in the endowment of a convent. En- 
couraged by the success of this engagement, Count Fernan kept his 
soldiers and cavaliers almost continually in the field, extending his 
conquests until a wide range of territory was wrested from the Moors. 
He captured the fortresses of Lara, Mugnon, Salamanca, Carazo, and 
the ford of Cascajares. His great successes brought upon him the 
ill-will of the Christians, notably of Sancho, King of Navarre, with 
whom he fought, and whom he killed in single combat. The son of 
Sancho, Don Garcia, surnamed the Trembler, unable to cope with 
Count Fernan in the open field, proposed an alliance with his family, 
offering him the hand of his sister, the Princess Sancha ; but when 
the count went forth to claim her, attended by but a feeble guard, he 
was captured by the wily Don Garcia, thrown into a dungeon, and 
loaded with chains. 

The Princess Sancha, learning that this noble cavalier was lan- 
o-uishino- in chains, and smitten with pity and remorse that one who 
had come to claim her hand in honorable marriage should meet with 
such reward, bribed the guards, appeared before the count, an angel 
of liHit and beauty, and led him forth to liberty, after first securing 
his oath that he would make her his wife as soon as they were safe 
in Fernan's own domains. 

So they went forth into the mountains, and after many perilous 
scrapes and romantic passages arrived in safety at Burgos. " Vain 



THE CITY OF THE CID CAMPEADOR. 



i J 



would be the attempt to describe the transports of the multitudes as 
Count Fernan Gonzalez entered his noble capital of Burgos. Prin- 
cess Sancha also was hailed with blessings wherever she passed, as 
the deliverer of their lord and the saviour of Castile ; and shortly 
afterward her nuptials with the count were celebrated with feastings 
and rejoicings, and tilts and tournaments, which lasted many days." 

King Garcia the Trembler came upon Castile with an army, but 
was defeated and taken prisoner, though subsequently sent home with 
honor at the intercession of his sister. 

It was about the time of Count Fernan that the warring Spaniards 
first received material aid from the fighting apostle, Saint James. A 
great Moorish host came up from Cordova, so many in number that 
the plains were covered as with locusts. Count Fernan saw that 
the unaided arm of flesh would not avail against such overwhelming 
odds, and so retired to a hermitage on the mountain above the river 
Arlanza and prayed for help. In the battle that ensued, when it 
was tiding against the Christians, the glorious apostle, San Yago, 
appeared in the heavens with a great company of angels, and with a 
red cross on their banners. This was what the Spaniards wanted, 
and the Moors were dismayed at, for the latter retreated in confusion, 
and the former followed victoriously with slaughter. 

If we may believe Spanish writers, the good Saint James has 
appeared several times at critical points in Spanish history and 
turned defeat into victory. At his appearance the soldiers gain 
courage and press forward with those inspiring war-cries : " Castile ! 
Castile ! San Yago and at them ! " Even in far-off America, cen- 
turies later, the soldiers of Cortez, of De Soto, of Balboa and Pizano, 
were cheered by the historic war-cry of, " Castilla, Castilla and Santi- 
ago ! " Miracles were frequent in those days, it is said, but so invari- 
ably worked in favor of the Spaniard that our sympathies are enlisted 
in favor of the Moor, against whom they always operated disastrously, 
even though the Moslems fought stoutly, giving the Spaniards as 



74 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

good as they sent. For instance, behold what befell a devout Cas- 
tilian, Pascual Vivas, who on the eve of a battle entered a chapel 
to pray. He continued so long at the mass that the battle went on 
without him, and he had the mortification of meeting his comrades 
returning victorious as he rode forth. Yet so pleased was the Virgin 
at his devoutness, that it was made to appear that he, Pascual Vivas, 
had been in the thick of the fight, his armor was indented, and his 
horse bore marks of the encounter, and his companions saluted him 
as the hero of the fight. It was explained that the effigy of Pascual 
had taken his place and enacted his part in the battle. 

Well, the time came when the good Count Fernan approached 
his end, having lived a Christian life and having been always an im- 
placable enemy of the Moors, from whom he had taken immense ter- 
ritories. They stood in such awe of him that his name was a terror, 
and the sight of the great silver cross, his standard, borne in the front 
of his legions, was always the presage of victory. This great cross, 
which is said to have been treasured up in the sacristy of the con- 
vent of San Pedro de Arlanzon, where Fernan caused his tomb to 
be reared, may have been taken by the pillaging French, as we did 
not learn of its present existence in Burgos, nor is it mentioned in 
the guide-books. 

To-day we find memorials of Count Fernan throughout Burgos : 
a statue in the beautiful garden on the banks of the river Arlanzon, 
w T hich divides the city, another in the great gate of the city, and an 
arch erected in his memory three hundred years ago. 

The castle still stands, though in ruins only, in which Don Garcia 
was imprisoned in the year 958 ; where Alfonso VI., of Leon, was 
confined by the Cid ; where King Ferdinand "the Saint" received 
the daughter of the Moorish king of Toledo, Saint Casilda, a con- 
vert to Christianity; and where Edward I. of England was married 
to Eleanor of Castile. This castle, the remains of which now crown 
the hill above the cathedral and dominate the city, was left in ruins 




THE CID. 



THE CITY OF THE CID CAMPEADOR. J J 

by the French, and is connected with the history of the invasion - r 
but its main interest to the true historian is its connection with those 
times most ancient. True to their vandal sentiment, the French de- 
stroyed not only the castle, but by the explosion, all the beautiful 
stained glass of the cathedral, — an irreparable loss. 

Two other structures bear in remembrance the early worthies of 
Burgos, and those are the Town Hall and the great city gate of Santa 
Maria. The Arco de Santa Maria is seen as you approach the city 
from the station at the end of a fine stone bridge. It seems a relic 
of the Middle Ages, with its flanking bastions of the ancient city 
walls, its turrets and battlements. The image of the Virgin stands 
over the great archway, and statues of Burgalese heroes ; behind, a 
square away, but near enough to be quite effective, rise the high 
towers of the cathedral. 

The Town Hall contains most ancient remains, and portraits of 
the founders of the city, and the earliest Counts of Castile. We were 
informed that the bones of the Cid were here preserved, and visited 
this place twice for permission to inspect these huesos del Cid and his 
beloved wife. A small party had collected by the time the custodian 
was ready to climb the stairs with us, and with true Spanish courtesy 
they pointed out the objects of greatest interest. There were ex- 
cellent portraits of the Cid (conjectural of course), of Lain Calvo, and 
Nuno Rasuro, the old Roman chair (or Gothic) said to have been the 
seat of the judges a thousand years ago, and other relics. In a room 
specially prepared were the bones of the Cid, in a walnut casket, 
consisting of several lono; bones and broken ones. In a black cdass 
bottle was all that remained of his wife, the faithful Ximena, she 
who was his support at home and the object of his affections. 

Assuming these remains to be authentic, it seems a great shame 
that they should be thus exhibited. Any other bones would do as 
well, and any other handful of dust as vividly bring back to us the 
glorious presence of the renowned Cid Campeador. Better had 



78 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



they been left to moulder in the sculptured tomb in which it was 
the wish of the Cid that he and his beloved might rest forever. The 
empty tomb, to which the noble warrior was borne on his charger, 
and in which he and his wife rested for many years, may be seen 
to-dav in the convent of San Pedro de Cardena, some miles distant 



■ MM^M \ Hilt 




■ 



THE CIDS COFFER, BURGOS CATHEDRAL. 



from the city. The sight of the solar del Cid, or his house, is indi- 
cated by three obelisks, which stand near the arch of Fernan 
Gonzalez. He was born here, it is affirmed, in 1026, and in this 
region many of his great exploits were performed. Some have 
affected to treat the Cid as a mythical character; but the Spaniards 
certainly do not, and it seems to us that the proofs are not lacking 
of his life and labors. He died in Valencia in 1099, whence his 
body was brought to the monastery of Cardenas. 



THE CITY OF THE CID CAMPEADOR. 79 

In the numerous " Ballads of the Cid " the story of this hero's 
life is told ; they are among the earliest of Spain. Here we learn 
of his first appearance as the avenger of his father, when he challenges 
to mortal combat and slays Count Lozeno. He afterward at the 
command of the king marries the count's daughter, Ximena, who 
has prayed her sovereign to be avenged, and who, strangely, consents 
to wed the slayer of her father. The king argued that " he whose 
hand had made her an orphan should of right be her protector ; but 
how Ximena became reconciled we are unable to discover. That 
he was a model husband, the ballads inform us often, and we are 
told that he dearly loved his wife Ximena, his good sword Tizona, 
and his gallant steed Babieca. 

He too, like Count Fernan Gonzalez, was a terror to the Moors. 
Knowing this, when he came to die, he commanded that (as a battle 
with the enemy was in prospect) his corpse should be set erect upon 
Babieca, his sword in his hand, and be led forth as he used to go 
in life, fighting for the glory of his country. 

" ' Bring in my Babieca,' — the Cid a dying lay, — 
1 That I may say farewell to him before I pass away.' 
The good horse, strong and gentle, full quiet did he keep, 
His large soft eyes dilating as though he fain would weep. 
' I am going, dear companion, thy master rides no more, 
Thou well deservest high reward, I leave thee this in store — 
Thy master's deeds shall keep thy name until earth's latest day ; ' 
And speaking not another word the good Cid passed away." 

We may well believe that his friends complied with his request: — 

" ' On the death of Babieca, lay him deep within the ground, 
That never flesh of such rare worth by bird of prey be found.' " 

Whether or not he performed all the valorous deeds attributed 
to his good sword, certain it is that Rodrigo de Bivar, the Cid 
Campeador, the hero of ballad and romance, was a personage any 
city might well be pardoned for claiming as its exclusive property. 



8o RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

In one of the cathedral cloisters you may see to-day an ancient 
iron-bound trunk which is said to have belonged to the Cid. Imagine 
it, a trunk over eight hundred years old ! It is said to be the veritable 
trunk which he once filled with sand and pledged to some Jews as 
full of his jewels ; but he redeemed his pledge, and paid his debts 
in full. 

The general aspect of the city is ancient enough to warrant one 
in imagining its streets repeopled with cavaliers in mail and soldiers 
in armor. Some houses still stand of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries, which are very quaint. The great Casa del Cordon, 
erected by one of the constables of Castile, is so called from the rope 
(or cordon) over the portal, which links together the escudos (or arms) 
of the houses of Figuera, Mendoza, and Velasco, with others of royalty- 
It occupies one side of a market square, and is conspicuous for its 
stone statues on the walls. The Casa Miranda is another, and the 
Casa del Conde, which bring back the gloomy Gothic of their times. 

But the grandest building in Burgos is the great cathedral, begun 
six hundred and sixty years ago, and one of the first Gothic temples 
of the world. It is almost too grand to describe, with its noble 
towers three hundred feet in height, of beautiful openwork stone, 
its hundred statues, many tombs and chapels, paintings and tapestries. 
When we were there the cloisters were hung with most ancient tapes- 
tries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and there statues of 
Ferdinand and Beatrice looked out from their- niches. Two miles 
from the city is a convent, built in 1493, where are beautiful alabaster 
tombs, and the high altar is gilded with some of the first gold brought 
from America by Columbus. Wherever we step we are reminded of 
things most ancient ; and it is this flavor of antiquity that makes 
Spain interesting above all other countries. 




THE INQUISITION, BARCELONA. 




CHAPTER V. 

IN THE "EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD." 

E jogged along comfortably southward, thoroughly 
enjoying the scenery and the bits of Spanish life 
that we saw in the hotels and in the railroad cars. 
Whenever an especially dreary stretch of scenery 
appeared, or we suffered annoying detention, the 
Judge would draw upon his vast fund of Spanish tradition and remi- 
niscences of former travels here. He delighted, like the rest of us, 
in the picturesque, not only of scenery, but of the every-day life. The 
beggars especially interested him ; and many a story had he to relate 
about his encounters with them ; for they cluster at every corner and 
squat by dozens in the porch of every church, dirty, deformed, per- 
sistent, and rascally. " Did you not notice," he said, " the curious 
helmet-like head-dress worn by many of the beggars of Burgos ? 
Well, that is patterned after the helmets of the famous counts of 
Castile, the redoubtable knights who fought against the Moors for 
Spanish freedom. Yes, there is no doubt that many of those very 
beggars are descended from caballeros of high degree ; and some of 
them possess, in their humble homes, escudos (or coats-of-arms) with 
quarterings that a prince might envy. Throughout Spain, indeed, 
helmet and armor of most ancient times are preserved to-day in the 
shapes of various Spanish costumes. There, for instance, are the 
coletos (doublets), the abarcas and alpargatas (or gaiters), and the mon- 
teras (or helmets). They are a curious people, these Spanish, a 



84 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

strange mixture of goodness and cunning, of pride and gentleness. 
And the Spanish beggar is the most curious of all ; moving in the 
very lowest stratum of society, yet always contented. The Spanish 
have a saying that with a crust of bread and a raw onion the beggar is 
perfectly satisfied : — 

' Con pan y ajo crudo 

Se anda seguro.' 

But ho ! look out ! There is the thing we have come so far to see ; 
there is the Escorial, the Eighth Wonder of the World, — la cchava 
maravilla del mztndo, the ambitious Spaniards call it." 

We looked out the car-window eagerly, in the direction indicated 
by the Judge, and saw, rising from a hill, with a background of 
mountain behind it, the famous Escorial, with its gray walls and 
pointed towers. The Escorial is distant about thirty miles from 
Madrid, or a ride on the railroad of about an hour and a half. 
The guards shouted out the name of the station, and we all alighted 
and looked about us. 

All the sight-seers had gone ahead of us in the omnibus, and 
the great courtyard of the convent was entirely deserted when we 
reached it, so that we were for a while at a loss where to £0. For- 
tune always favors the dilatory, however; and so we fell in with a 
group of Barcelonians who were visiting Madrid and vicinity on 
a circular ticket, and who admitted us joyfully to their party. They 
were in charge of the official guide of the place, who was, or seemed 
to be, afflicted with some trouble of the brain, or total lack of 
sense, which made him an interesting though not an indispensable 
auxiliary. 

Some of the guide-books will tell you that the Escorial was built 
in the shape of a gridiron ; and the general plan of it does resemble 
one, with bars and handle, and towers sticking into the air for its 
feet. It took this shape, it is said, because of a vow of Philip II. to 
erect a monastery dedicated to Saint Lawrence, who was broiled on a 



IN THE "EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD." &J 

gridiron, and would naturally be supposed to desire to commemorate 
this event. This Escorial is comprised of a monastery, a palace, a 
church, pantheon, library, and seminary. We enter first the great 
Court of the Kings (the Patio de los Reyes), two hundred and thirty 
feet long and one hundred and thirty-six wide, and see, at its farther 
end, six great statues of the kings of the house of David, the most 
noteworthy being that of Solomon. 

Before entering the church let us try to grasp the magnitude of 
the entire structure known as the Escorial. It is a rectangular par- 
allelogram seven hundred and forty-four Spanish feet long and five 
hundred and eighty wide, covering over five hundred thousand square 
feet. It is said to be the first great Graeco- Roman edifice in Spain ; 
and it were well had it been the last, for it is gloomier than a tomb, 
and severe to austerity, though grand and impressive as any artificial 
mountain of granite ever erected. Eight towers rise above the grand 
mass of granite to a height of two hundred feet, and the great cupola 
of the church towers above them all. There are sixteen courts (or 
patios), forty altars, twenty-six hundred windows, twelve hundred 
doors, eighty-six staircases, three thousand feet of fresco paintings, 
and eighty miles, it is said, of promenades, paths, walks, platforms, 
corridors. This vast work was begun in the year 1565, and was fin- 
ished in 1584, having cost over three million dollars. One of the 
greatest wonders about it is, that he whose inception it was, King 
Philip II., should have lived to see it completed, and should have 
been able to finish and furnish it to the minutest detail, adorning it 
with the finest sculptures and the richest works of art. This was the 
fact that oppressed me, — that the mind of the gloomy king pervaded 
every part, and not a ray of sunlight or gleam of happiness that might 
be excluded did he allow within its walls. 

The church itself, which is surrounded by the conventual struc- 
tures, is three hundred and twenty feet long, two hundred and thirty 
wide, and with a height to the top of the cupola of three hundred and 



88 



GAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 



twenty feet. It is built in Doric simplicity, everywhere granite gloomi- 
ness, heightened by its vastness. On three sides are chapels, includ- 
ing those of Saint John, Saint Michael, Saint Maurice, and the eleven 
thousand virgins. The organs are fine, but decaying ; the frescos 




HARD LUCK. 



are bold and beautiful. The pulpits of alabaster and gilt bronze are 
the only modern things here, and were the gift of Ferdinand VII. 
The high altar and oratorios are reached by a flight of blood-red steps, 
perhaps indications of the innumerable victims of its royal founder. 



IN THE "EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLDS 



8 9 



The high altar is directly over the pantheon, where lie the remains 
of Philip (all the Philips, in fact, except Philip V.), Charles V., and 
their families. 

It was primarily as a royal mausoleum, in accordance with the 
wishes of Philip's father, and secondarily as a monastery, that this 




ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. 



costly pile was erected. The high altar is made of precious marbles 
and jaspers, inlaid, and the retable, or altar-screen, ninety-three feet 
high and ninety-four wide, is composed of red granite, gilt bronze, and 
jaspers, and cost over two hundred thousand dollars. It seems almost 
impertinent to speak of the cost of anything in connection with this 
grand edifice, as labor, money, treasure, art, even human lives, were 
lavishly offered upon its altars. The oratorios on either side the altar 
were for the use of the royal personages, and led to chambers behind 



90 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

and bevond. Above them are the celebrated effigies of the kin^s and 
the royal families, kneeling. These are of bronze ; the groups on 
the right are Charles V., his wife, and female figures; on the left are 
Philip and his four wives, all portraits, it is said, and thus historically 
interesting. In the relicario (or reliquary) are said to be about seven 
thousand precious relics of saints, including a bar of the gridiron on 
which Saint Lawrence was broiled, and even a bone of this saint, 
with also one of his feet, a coal yet sticking between the toes. As 
Philip II. was the relicomaniac of the time in which he lived, and 
spared no money nor pains to secure, the finest collection extant, he 
had probably the choicest assortment of holy mementos ever got 
together. These were all enshrined in gold and silver, with precious 
stones; but the French, eighty years ago, divested them of their val- 
uable mountings, and left only the dry bones. 

Although we had a guide who claimed to be the only and univer- 
sal, yet we were obliged to leave him at every door and hire a special 
cicerone, either a monk or government official, to whom we were ex- 
pected to pay a special fee. One of these led the way to the choir, 
with its carven stalls, its great lectern, or facistole, with the glorious 
choral books, over three hundred years old, each leaf made from a 
single calf-skin and beautifully illuminated. There seemed to be 
more than a hundred of these choral books, each one of enormous 
weight. We saw the stall in which Philip II. sat near his brother 
monks, where he is said to have received the tidings of the battle of 
Lepanto and the destruction of the Armada, — in both cases without 
chancre of countenance. In an anteroom is the famous and beau- 
tiful image of Our Lord Crucified, in Carrara marble, the work of 
Cellini, bearing the inscription : " Benvenutus Zelinus, Civis Floren- 
tinus facebat, 1562." It is a matter of tradition that this priceless 
crucifix, with its life-size Christ, was brought across Spain, from the 
coast to the Escorial, upon men's shoulders. Another ornament of 
the choir is a crystal chandelier, hanging near the facistole, which 



IN THE "EIGHTH WOXDER OF THE WORLD." 



91 



latter, though very ponderous, is turned by the slightest exertion of 
one's strength. 

The one room of the buildings superior to all the rest, in the estima- 
tion of some of us, was the sacristia, one hundred and eight feet long 
and thirty-two feet wide, with fine frescos on its ceiling and celebrated 




PHiLir 11. 



paintings on its walls. These paintings include Riberas, Zurbarans, 
Guido Renis, Titians, Tintorettos. The largest, and in some respects 
the grandest, was a Last Supper by Tintoretto. A magnificent col- 
lection is this, even though presenting only the fragments of what it 
once was, the most valuable having been taken to Madrid. 



92 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

It will be wearisome to describe all the treasures of this vast 
agglomeration of buildings. Let us merely mention the palace, with 
its suites of rooms hung with glorious tapestries, and with walls and 
floors inlaid with precious woods from America. Many of the tapes- 
tries were made at the royal factories of Madrid, after designs by the 
great Goya and others; but one hundred and sixty were from Flanders, 
fabricated after designs by Teniers. The rooms hung with these tapes- 
tries, which were mostly bright and cheering in tone and composition, 
were the bright spots in the gloomy pile ; but these were of a later 
date than the time of Philip II., and principally brought here by the 
festive Charles. No one should fail to visit the Hall of Battles, painted 
over with wonderful battle-scenes between Moors and Spaniards, giving 
exact pictures of the arms and armor of that time, and consequently 
invaluable to the historical painter. 

The heart of the edifice is a gloomy cell, where the master mind 
that had planned it went out from companionship with his filthy body 
on the 13th of September, 1598. The bare cell in which Philip II. 
expired opens out toward the high altar of the church, so that the 
monarch-monk was able to hear mass without leaving his bed. Here 
he died, holding the crucifix his father (whom he idolized, and whose 
commands he implicitly obeyed) had in his own fingers when soul and 
body parted company. His life here proved the sincerity of his dec- 
laration that he desired but a cell in the palace he had built to God. 
Builder of the Escorial, destroyer of the prosperity of Spain, slayer of 
heretics, who had lived to see the consummation of almost every 
gigantic scheme, he died as he had desired (but not in the manner he 
may have desired), in the building he had erected to cover the tombs 
of himself and his royal father. We saw a few relics of Philip in the 
shape of his stool, chair, and table, and the grooves worn in the stone 
floor by the moving of his bedstead. 

There remain yet many things to see, but we shall only ask our 
readers to glance at the library. This also is of a grandeur commen- 




INTERIOR OF THE LIBRARY OF THE ESCORIAL. 



fJV THE "EIGHTH WOXDER OF THE WORLD." 95 

surate with the Escorial, the room being nearly two hundred feet long, 
broad and lofty in proportion. The cases are of choice woods, the 
books arranged with their edges toward the reader instead of their 
backs. The effect is strange, and of course unique. All are gilded, 
and have their titles inscribed on their edges. Many books, rich and 
rare, are buried here, including Spanish, Gothic, and Arabic manu- 
scripts. Perhaps there are fifty thousand volumes remaining, after the 
spoliations of the thievish French. 

We find here the " Codice Aureo," of the four gospels, in letters of 
gold, begun, it is said, under Conrad II., Emperor of the West, and 
finished about the middle of the eleventh century. Marble and jas- 
per tables adorn the room, and a valuable old globe of the time of 
Philip II. We saw a MS. " Biblia " of the sixteenth century, and 
the " Codice de Oro," of date about 1050, the " Devocionario " of Isa- 
bella the Catholic and Carlos V., an " Apocalipsio de San Juan," Siglo 
XV., with pictures of gold and brilliant colors, on vellum. An illumi- 
nated Koran (Alcoran) is carefully preserved here and shown, and a 
curious " Vigila Mongi, o' Vigilanus," written in the year 976, illumi- 
nated on vellum at Toledo. There is also the " Tree of Love " {El 
Arbol de Amor), an illuminated vellum of ano 1281. Another, Arabic, 
bore the inscription : " Muhammed Shams-el din Hapheth, Hegira 
797 = 1400." Lastly, we found a book of Persian poems with illus- 
trations in red and gold, that reminded us of pictures of the Forty 
Thieves, written by Ah Ben Muhammed, and a National History, in 
Arabic, bearing date, " Hegira 735 = 1358." 

Well, the day came to an end. Our friends of the day strolled 
with us to visit the miniature palace called the Casita del Principe, 
with its pictures, gilding, ivory-work, and marquetry, and then they left 
us by the station, promising to meet us in Barcelona. 

Our train did not leave till nine o'clock, and as the spell of the place 
was on us, we returned to ramble around the outside of the gloomy 
Escorial. We agreed with Amicis (an Italian author) : " The Escorial 



96 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

is Philip II. ; he is still there, alive and frightful, and with him the im- 
age of his terrible God. You remember all you have read of him, of 
his treasures, the Inquisition, and all becomes clear to the mind's eye. 
Then you would like to rebel, to raise your thoughts to the God of 
vour heart and hopes, and to conquer the mysterious terror which 
the place inspires in you; but you cannot do this; the Escorial sur- 
rounds, holds, and overwhelms you ; the cold of its stones penetrates 
to your marrow ; the sadness of its sepulchral labyrinth invades your 
soul ; if you are with a friend you say, ' Let us leave ; ' if you were with 
your love you would press her to your heart with a feeling of 
trepidation ; if you were alone you would take flight. At last you 
mount a staircase, enter a room, go to the window, and salute with a 
burst of gratitude the mountains, sun, freedom, and the great benefi- 
cent God who loves and pardons." 

We left our friends and took a path beneath the convent gardens, 
through a bit of wildwood and across a meadow to a point of rock 
which commanded the slope on which the Escorial was built, and the 
stern mountains beyond. This was the silla del rey (the seat of the 
king), where Philip came and sat at intervals to watch the progress 
of the great work. A little boy piloted us thither, and pointed out 
the hollowed seat in the granite and the groove beside it, in which 
the queen, Philip's wife, used to place her fan. 

The sun went down as we sat there and gazed upon the great 
granite mass with its gloomy surroundings, and the shadows stretched 
across the valley before we descended. Calm and peace pervaded 
the scene as we walked across the meadows in the dark and silence, 
broken only by the tinkle of sheep-bells and cow-bells, and the song 
of a bird. Two white-robed girls were breaking down boughs of haw- 
thorn as we crossed the meadow, and one of them looked up brightly 
as we passed ; but she spoke not, and we kept our way on into the 
forest gloom, and thence past the gardens to the station. 




CHAPTER VI. 

SOME MIDSUMMER DAYS IN MADRID. 

E were greatly disappointed in Madrid ; but for this 
we were prepared by our readings, for hardly any 
one praises the city, and everybody has something 
to say against its situation. Witty and entertaining 
John Hay calls it a "capital with malice afore- 
thought," inasmuch as it was deliberately founded here in the centre 
of barren and wind-swept plains, in obedience to the whim of a Span- 
ish king. Except for the fact that it is near the geographical centre 
of Spain, there is no reason for it, as there are many older and finer 
cities better situated for the nation's capital. But here it is, and 
here it will remain, — a garish, uncomfortable, second-rate Paris, aping 
Parisian architecture in its buildings and Parisian fashions in its 
shops. 

Much the city has, of course, that is attractive, and many things 
are here that no other city in the w r orld possesses. Three centuries 
of time, the ambitions of various rulers, and the good sense of later 
legislators, have assembled here such treasures of art especially, 
that thousands flock here annually to inspect them. Take away 
from Madrid its museums, however, and little would be left. 

Let us make a bare enumeration of the objects considered worthy 
of a visit, in this city of four hundred thousand inhabitants. First 
in interest, by all odds, is the Royal Museum, with its peerless col- 
lection of paintings ; the Royal Palace, containing thirty large rooms 



IOO RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

on the lower floor, a grand hall of ambassadors, with velvet-draped 
and mirrored walls, and painted ceiling, with a gorgeous throne- 
room, the throne guarded by four gilded lions ; a good library, theatre, 
chapel, and collection of ancient tapestries. The queen regent was 
living there, having just returned from Valencia and Barcelona, when 
we sought entrance ; and as on occasions of the royal residence 
the palace is closed to strangers, we did not see the interior of the 
vast and gloomy pile. But we did see the guard-mounting, in the 
great court, and passed an hour quite pleasantly, inspecting the fine 
body of men appointed to guard the palace, the queen, and the heir 
apparent. 

The present king of Spain, by the way, is a baby of four years, 
having been born after the death of his father, in 1885. Yet he is 
the recognized ruler over some twenty millions of people ! 

One of the buildings enclosing the palace quadrangle is more 
than locally celebrated as the royal armory, — the armaria real. Here 
we found more objects of interest than in all else of Madrid combined, 
excepting the Art Museum and the great Library. It is a complete 
exposition of arms and armor of every period of Spanish history, 
from the time of the Goths and Romans to the present day. 

Entering the great room devoted to the armory, you look down 
a row of armored horsemen, with lance and helmet on, — a most 
impressive cavalcade in steel. They are of several different centuries, 
but principally of the sixteenth, when Charles V. and Philip II. were 
in their glory. Their royal officers in armor are here shown, mounted 
upon their war-horses; the famous Charles in that armor inlaid with 
gold in which he is depicted, in the Royal Gallery, upon canvas by 
the immortal Titian. It is stated in the sruide-books that the armor 
of Columbus is preserved here, and that of Fernando Cortez. 

In this connection we might mention that the armor of Boabdil, 
last king of the Moors, is in the possession of the Duke of Fernan 
Nunez, a descendant of his captor. This is probably the finest col- 



SOME MIDSUMMER DAYS IN MADRID. 



IOI 



lection of ancient armor and especially of that worn by historic 
personages, in the world. We had seen that other great collection 
in the Tower of London, and so had opportunity for comparison. 
The two together give us a complete exposition of the weapons and 




THE ROYAL ARMORY. 



armor of ancient times ; that of Madrid being richer in artistic armor, 
with chased and repousse work on shields and helmets, and exquisitely- 
inlaid designs in gold and silver; and that of London in ponderous 
flails and maces, cross-bows, cannon, and arquebuses. A visitor to 
both armories will not fail to note how intimately connected were 
the two countries, Spain and England, at certain periods of their 
history. We were especially struck, in the Tower, by the appearance 
of Queen Elizabeth, in her rich costume, mounted upon a horse, 



102 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

and on her way to offer up thanksgiving for the destruction of the 
Spanish Armada ; and that was about three hundred years ago. 

In Madrid is the armor, and also many portraits of that arch-enemy 
of Protestantism, Philip II., once the husband of Bloody Mary, 
whose portrait may be seen here. One end of the hall is covered with 
trophies from the battle of Lepanto, where the last great Moham- 
medan invasion was checked, and Europe relieved of all appre- 
hension of the hordes from the East. Banners and cimeters, great 
shields studded with precious stones, and Oriental weapons of every 
sort, are here displayed as memorials of that great and sanguinary 
battle. 

Although the armored knights on horseback are by far the most 
attractive figures, bringing back to vision those heroes of Spain, 
Gonzalvo de Cordova, the Cid Campeador, the Marquis of Cadiz, 
Fernando the Catholic, Hernandez del Pulgar, Garcilaso de la Vega, 
and a hundred other heroes of history and romance, not excluding 
the great Quixote even, yet there are a thousand other features 
worth observing. For instance, one may trace here the complete 
development of the gun and musket, from the first rude matchlock 
and arquebuse to the perfected rifle of the present day. We were 
interested greatly in some richly chased and gold-inlaid guns of two 
centuries ago, with carved stocks of elegant shapes. 

In the Naval Museum, contained in a separate building, is a 
complementary collection of ancient and modern cannon, models of 
the most famous ships and war vessels of time past and time present, 
including those great galleons that voyaged to and fro between the 
Orient and Mexico, Vera Cruz and San Domingo and Spain. The 
great treasure-ships, once so eagerly sought, and sometimes cap- 
tured, by Drake and Hawkins, and men-of-war that took part in the 
conflicts of Trafalgar and St. Vincent, — these are all brought be- 
fore us in the fine models in the Naval Museum. Going even farther 
back than these galleons take us, into the history of Spain in the 



SOME MIDSUMMER DAYS IN MADRID. 



IO 



New World, we may see in this museum paintings of the discovery 
of San Salvador by Columbus, and portraits of Colon, Cortez, De 
Soto, Balboa, and Pizarro. 

A priceless memento of Columbus is preserved in an anteroom 
by itself, — no less than the great chart of his voyages, prepared by 
royal order, the earliest chart of the New World discoveries. The 
chart that Columbus himself drew, 
and took with him on his first 
voyage, is in the Columbina li- 
brary at Seville, as well as his 
journal. We are reminded of 
Columbus in every part of Spain. 
In Seville is the slab that once 
covered his remains, and other x 
memorials ; in Santa Fe (Vega of ~- 
the Granada) he last visited the J 
queen before setting out upon 
his voyage ; in the Alhambra he 
had an interview with his sover- 
eigns, it is said ; from Palos he 
took his departure, on his first 
voyage ; at Cordova he passed 
years of waiting, while the con- 
quest of Granada was going on. 
Madrid, at that time, was un- 
known, but here, as the nation's capital, are preserved many memo- 
rials ; at Salamanca he held that famous consultation with the learned 
doctors; at Burgos the high altar of the convent of Miraflores is 
decorated with some of the gold of his first voyage ; at Barcelona, 
directly across the kingdom from the port at which he landed on 
his return, he was so proudly received by his sovereigns ; at Valladolid 
to-day, we may see the house in which he died, and the convent in 




.^5=5 *r-2 



106 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

which he for a time lay buried. The Spaniards, whatever may be 
their faults, cannot with justice be accused of ignoring the claims 
upon posterity of their departed great and worthy men. 

We noticed, in this Naval Museum, a section of the tree of noche 
triste, from Mexico; and this carried us back to that sad night when 
the Spaniards were expelled from the city of Mexico with such terri- 
ble slaughter, and when Cortez himself fell down beneath this tree 
of noche triste (the tree of the sorrowful night), and bewailed his 
misfortunes. 

" In Tacuba, with Cortez, was many a gallant chief; 
He thought upon his losses, and bowed his head in grief." 

The immense two-handed sword once belonging to Don Juan 

of Austria is shown in the Columbus room, and many paintings of 

ancient vessels. Very ancient and curious cannon are also here, 

which take us, in imagination, back to their first use in Spain, and 

hence in Europe. We read that gunpowder was first employed at 

the siege of Baza, by a Moorish king, in 131 2 and 1325. " More than 

twenty pieces of artillery used at the siege of Baza," says Prescott, 

in " Ferdinand and Isabella," " are still to be seen in that city, where 

they long served as columns in the market-place ; " and we were 

told in Granada that some of them are there still. More artillery of 

ancient date can be found in Spain, perhaps, than in any other 

country of Europe, owing to the demand for it immediately upon 

its invention, by the Spanish sovereigns, to use in their wars against 

the Moors. But it has to a great extent been destroyed and recast; 

and the French are responsible for the disappearance of a vast 

quantity. For the French had respect neither for antiquity nor 

historic association, in their invasion of Spain of eighty years ago, 

and razed to the ground many of Spain's monuments, as well as 

plundered her of richest treasures. Another museum, but of minor 

interest, is the Mtcsco Arqucolooico (or archaeological). There are 




CARDINAL XIMEXES. 



SOME MIDSUMMER DAYS IN MADRID. IO9 

several libraries, including that of the Duke of Veragua, a descendant 
of Columbus, the Palace library, and the National. 

The Biblioteca Nacional (or National Library) has many famous 
books, including the earliest publications of the world. There we 
find the Forum Judicorum, the earliest code of Spanish laws, and 
illuminated manuscript of the eleventh century (1095), a Gothic ritual 
of the thirteenth century, in primitive Spanish, and a copy of the 
first book ever printed in Spain, or at least of the second. The 
first press (according to Prescott) appears to have been erected at 
Valencia, in 1474, and the first book printed in Spain a collection of 
songs in honor of the Virgin. The first classic was of the works of 
Sallust, in 1475. The book shown us in the Madrid library as the first 
print of the press was printed in Valencia, 1475. 

" The claim of Valencia to the first printing-press is disputed by 
Barcelona, but to Valencia doubtless belongs the honor." Barcelona 
claims also, and. it is thought with justice, to have been the first 
city in Europe to establish a bank of deposit, which it did in 1401. 
It was, we know, one of the most ancient ports of Spain, and has ever 
been the most prosperous. Its inhabitants, the Catalians, were ever 
" peculiarly jealous of their freedom and their exclusive privileges." 

In this library also is a copy of that exceedingly rare book, the 
polyglot Bible of Cardinal Ximenes. This greatly-celebrated work 
was produced at Alcala, not many miles from Madrid, then the seat of 
the university founded by the cardinal. It should rank as one of the 
greatest literary achievements of any age, especially when we consider 
the period in which it was accomplished. Not only was the printing 
done at Alcala, but the type was cast there ; fifteen years being con- 
sumed in the entire labor, and the book finished in 15 17. 

In Arabic manuscripts the library is somewhat rich; but it might 
have contained at present literary treasures of inestimable value were 
it not for the mistaken zeal of this same Ximenes, who destroyed the 
most precious Arabic manuscripts that fell into the hands of the 



HO RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

Spaniards in their Moorish conquests. After the conquest of Gran- 
ada, in 1492, he burned thousands of Arabic books and manuscripts, 
reserving some three hundred only for his university of Alcala. 

Leaving the musty library, where the smiling attendant conveys 
very plainly that a real ov two will not come amiss, we seek the Plaza 
Oriente, near the palace, and walk around its circular garden, admir- 
ing the fine equestrian statue of Philip V. in its centre, and the 
scores of statues surrounding it. These statues are of the heroic 
size, but not of heroic mould, and are of the kings of Spain, beginning 
with the very earliest and ending — nobody knows where; for they 
surround the plaza, are strung all along the walls of the Prado and 
the park, and stare at one from every nook and corner. It occurs to 
one, looking at these kingly effigies, that Spain has been very prolific 
of kings, and has had almost as many as our army has officers. These 
kings formerly stood around and upon the palace ; but it was found 
that their room was better than their company, and they were thrust 
out upon the world. 

The plazas of Madrid are not numerous, but they have some inter- 
est, especially to a Protestant desiring to keep in mind the atrocities 
of the Romish Church. In the Plaza Verde, for instance, is a cross, 
marking the spot where the last victim of the Inquisition perished at 
the stake. As to the Plaza Mayor (the Great Square), there formerly 
took place the atrocious antos da f'e, when numerous victims were 
condemned and burned in the presence of the court and distinguished 
visitors. Should you wish for other proofs than that in the histories, 
go to the Royal Gallery, and there inquire for a great painting by a 
contemporary, in which the revolting scenes are depicted with disgust- 
ing fidelity. 

It was during the regency of the ambitious Cardinal Ximenes that 
Madrid became the residence of the court, in the early years of the 
sixteenth century. Through the crazy Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, the crown of Spain came to Charles I., who is also known 




FOUNTAIN OF THE SWAN, MADRID. 



SOME MIDSUMMER DAYS IN MADRID. 113 

as Charles V. of Germany. Catalina, another daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, married Henry VIII. of England, and is known as 
Catharine of Aragon ; and Isabella herself was descended from a 
Spanish princess, Constance, daughter of Pedro the Cruel, who had 
married a prince of England. 

But Madrid, from the time of Ximenes, is associated with the 
royal families of Spain. The growth of Catholic Spain after the 
death of Ferdinand may be traced in the expansion of Madrid and 
its influence in affairs. Notwithstanding that Charles I. came into 
possession of Spain in the plenitude of its power, with all its people 
united under one government, and with no domestic enemy to fear, 
yet the decline of Spain commenced with his accession. " He had 
more power for good or ill in Europe than has been exercised by 
any man since the reign of Augustus ; and on the whole he did as 
much harm with it as could possibly be done." 

Let us run over the list of rulers since the regency of Cardinal 
Ximenes, most of whom held their courts at Madrid. Charles I. was 
born in 1501, king of Spain in 15 16, grand duke of Austria in 15 19. 
Nearly all the great discoveries in the New World were made in his 
reign, for which, however, little thanks the world owes him. In 1555 
he abdicated in favor of his son Philip II., the persecutor of heretics, 
who made Madrid the centre of his work, and who died in 1598. In 
162 1 Philip III. died. During his reign, in 1609, the last of the Moors 
were expelled from Spain. Philip IV. died in 1665. The reign of the 
three Philips is marked by the great decline in the splendid fortunes 
of Spain. With the Jews and the Moors, whom they had driven out 
of the country, departed a great measure of the country's prosperity. 
The Moors, says a writer, had brought to Spain the cultivation of the 
sugar-cane, cotton, rice, and mulberry. The spices and sweets of 
Valencia were famous, and so were the blades of Toledo, the silks 
of Granada, the leather of Cordova. No one knows to-day how much 
Moorish treasure may yet be buried in Spain. In 1700 Charles II. 



114 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

died; in 1746 died another Philip; in 1759 Ferdinand VI., and in 
1788 Charles III., who expelled the Jesuits from Spain, and who was 
succeeded by Charles IV. In the year 1797 occurred the great naval 
battle of Cape St. Vincent, and in 1805 the battle of Trafalgar. In 
1808 Ferdinand VII. became king, during whose reign the usurper, 
Joseph Bonaparte, for a brief period was seated upon the throne 
of Spain. In 1830 was born Isabella, who upon the death of her 
father, Ferdinand, was proclaimed queen when but two years of age. 
Trouble began with her birth, and the Carlist plot for the throne. 
In 1789 Charles IV., grandfather to Ferdinand, had established the 
succession to the Spanish crown in the female line by " pragmatic 
sanction," and on the 6th of April, 1830, Ferdinand confirmed this 
decree. His brother Don Carlos, presumptive heir to the throne, 
was banished to Portugal in 1832, but incited revolt, in which he was 
sustained mainly by the Catholics and the mountaineers. He died in 
1855 ; the second Don Carlos, the Count of Montemolin, died in 1861, 
and the present one is only a nephew of the last. 

The Carlists were pretty thoroughly crushed in 1876. Isabella, 
whose champion was Espartero, married her cousin Don Francisco 
d'Assisi, in 1841. Her sister married the Duke of Montpensier, fifth 
son of Louis Philippe, whose palace is in the city of Seville. In 
1868 Isabella was expelled from Spain and fled to Paris, where she 
still resides. In 1870 the crown was offered by the Cortes to Amadeo, 
son of King Humbert of Italy, and this faint-hearted sovereign abdi- 
cated in 1873, when Castellar and others tried to organize Spain as a 
republic. In 1874 the son of Isabella was made king, under title of 
Alfonso XII. Alfonso died in 1885, was succeeded by his daughter, 
Marie de Mercedes; but the present king is the infant born after his 
death, and known as Alfonso XIII. 

Thus skeletonized, we have the history of Spain for the past three 
hundred years. The people have been mainly true to their rulers, and 
if any have lost their crowns it has been their own fault. It has been 



SOME MIDSUMMER DA YS IN MADRID. 



115 



their fault, too, that Madrid is not the attractive city the Spaniards 
would have it. 

There are but few monuments and statues, save those of the an- 
cient kings, which latter seem to have been executed by contract and 
to have come from the same hand. 

Of modern statues that of Cervantes, in front of the House of 
Deputies, is the best. In the Prado is a monument to commemorate 




FOUNTAIN OF THE SEASONS, MADRID. 



that horrible act of Murat in 1808, — the massacre of some hundreds 
of citizens. 

Two fine fountains of unique design are prominent in the Prado, 
which, as the world knows, is the fashionable promenade of Madrid. 
It is a sight worth the seeing, — the stream of humanity rolling down 
toward the Prado late in the afternoon, and then streaming back again 



Il6 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

early in the evening. But as it is a well-dressed multitude, and not dis- 
tinctive enough to merit more than a glance, we will not stop to de- 
scribe it. Only the ragged and dirty, the beggars and gypsies sui 
generis, are picturesque enough to make us halt for a second glance, 
and they pertain mostly to the South. 

That we do not attempt a description of the art treasures of the 
Museum should rather be placed to our credit, we think, than set down 
to any lack of interest in art. It is, in truth, a stupendous subject, to 
undertake to call attention, even, to the treasures of this the finest art 
collection of the world. 

Did we not wander for hours and hours, through halls and galleries, 
and sit in worship before all the painted gods ? To enumerate the 
old masters only : there are ten paintings by Raphael, forty-three by 
Titian, thirty-four by Tintoretto, forty-six by Murillo, sixty-two by 
Rubens, and sixty-four by Velasquez. It is now sixty years since this 
collection was formed, when convents and palaces were made to dis- 
gorge their treasures to be placed in the light, and for the enlighten- 
ment of the world. 

The great centre of Madrid is the Puerto, del Sol — literally, the 
Gate of the Sun — now no gate at all, but the great square of the city 
proper, from which diverge the principal streets and avenues. All the 
tramway lines radiate from this point, and the largest hotels are here 
situated. It is certainly a place of the sun, as any one who has to 
cross its broad area at midday is painfully aware ; but the heat is 
somewhat tempered by an immense fountain in the centre, which 
sends forth a great volume of water, with much noise and sparkling of 
stream and spray. 

That Madrid is a railroad centre, and the centre of art influences 
as well, people now concede, in spite of their prejudices. No one can 
call his Spanish tour complete without first visiting or passing through 
Madrid. Still, we do wish Madrid had never been created, and that its 
art treasures had been gathered into some old city like Burgos or 



SOME MIDSUMMER DA YS IN MADRID. I i 7 

Cordova, where their surroundings would form richer settings, histori- 
cally and architecturally; for they are so a lone here, without a sug- 
gestion of the time, the circumstance, or the people of the epoch in 
which the greatest of these paintings were produced. But as lament- 
ing will do no good, what's the use of lamenting? Madrid exists, it 
is recognized as the nation's capital, and its air seems very well 
adapted for the preservation of the paintings, as well as for their 
exhibition. 

Finally, we left behind us Madrid with many regrets, — not especially 
for Madrid, but for the museums and people. We do not pretend to 
have exhausted Madrid. Edmundo de Amicis was there three months, 
and left it with the same confession we make, having been there but 
ten days ; but while he devoted so much time to Madrid and then 
hastily skipped through Cordova and Andalusia, we reversed his plan, — 
gave all the time w r e could spare to acquainting ourselves with the true 
Spain, the Espana of the poet, the historian, the antiquarian. And we 
are convinced we did right; for Madrid, interesting though it be to the 
student of politics, to him who would study the Spain of to-day and 
the fashions of to-day, has little for him who would acquaint himself 
with the greater and more glorious Spain of the past. More pictu- 
resque people, grander cathedrals and churches, more fascinating vistas 
of Spain, can be found in any city of Andalusia than in Madrid. Even 
the bull-fights of Seville are, or ought to be, finer spectacles than those 
of Madrid ; and as to religious processions, those of the North can't 
" hold a candle " to those of the South. 



CHAPTER VII. 



TOLEDO, ON THE GOLDEN TAGUS. 




2^/-) ROM Dona Carmen, our amiable landlady of Burgos, 
we bore a letter to her sister, who ek^d out a scant 
income by renting rooms to strangers with good refer- 
ences. Dona Dolores was recently widowed, her hus- 
band having suddenly deceased the month previous ; 
so her name of Dolores (the Sorrowful) was applicable. 
As her maiden name had been, let us say, Gonzales, 
she was now Doria Dolores Gonzales, viuda (or widow) 
de Garcia. There are many reasons in favor of a woman 
retaining her maiden name after marriage, the chief beino: that she 
is not so completely effaced as with us ; and especially should this be 
a forceful reason if the lady should have acquired a literary or artistic 
fame previous to marriage. Senorita Smith, for instance, should she 
happen to marry a man named Brown, would henceforth be addressed 
as Seriora Dona Carlota Smith de Brown, and we would more fre- 
quently address her as Dona Smith, or Dona Carlota, than as Mrs. 
Brown ; and the children of the marriage would retain both names 
until they had (the girls especially) married, and added another to the 
name of Brown. It is both a means of enlightenment as to their 
pedigree, and of perplexity to a stranger. 

Dona Dolores was gentle, sympathetic, and motherly ; her recent 
grief had plunged her into melancholy, but she did not allow it to 
intrude itself upon her alien household. Besides ourselves there were 




A STREET IX TOLEDO. 



TOLEDO, ON THE GOLDEN TAGUS. 121 

four boarders, — two bachelors, and a couple newly married, who billed 
and cooed in a way that seemed to us most obtrusively and unneces- 
sarily affectionate. They were soon to sail for Cuba, and asked us all 
manner of questions about America and the West Indies, seeming 
to have some anxiety about the voyage and their reception in a country 
so far away. They were all tolerable enough, and all very kind, but 
one of them had some unpleasant habits. As to the table manners 
of Spaniards in general we feel inclined to say a great deal ; but per- 
haps prudence might suggest silence on this subject. 

But it was a pleasant company, and one kindly disposed to the 
strangers that sat at meat with them twice a day for a week. We 
soon discovered that the street in which Dona Dolores' house was 
situated was much out of the way, and it would have been better 
had we been lodged in the Puerta del Sol, in the centre of the city; 
but it is a rule with the Club never to move when it can help it, 
and is at least tolerably situated ; and so we stayed there. 

Now we will turn to a different subject: One morning early, 
as the club was taking its " constitutional," walking across the great 
square of the Puerta del Sol, w r ith the Judge leading the van and 
the Professor and the Historian bringing up the rear, its ears were 
assailed by uncommon cries. They proceeded from the newsboys, 
who had turned out by scores, with their arms full of pamphlets, 
which proved on inspection to be a new Railway-Guide, — "The Indi- 
cador Official de los Caminos de Hierro de Espaiia, Portugal, y Me- 
diodia de Francia," full of information for the traveller, but especially 
rich in new excursion routes, from Paris and Madrid to Barcelona 
and other parts of Spain. The great fair at Barcelona had set in 
motion the greater portion of travelling Spain, and the excursion 
rates had stimulated even the middle classes to indulge in the luxury 
of a trip to the fine old city on the Mediterranean. 

Yet even at greatly reduced and special rates the fares over the 
Spanish railways are far in advance of our own. Let us quote from 



122 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

our note-book some routes that we jotted down when seeking to 
include all the principal northern cities in our itinerary. We wished 
to go to Barcelona, and also include Valencia and Tarragona. The 
fare direct to Barcelona, second class, via Zaragossa, is about 60 pesetas \ 
or $12; first class, 80 pesetas, or $16: the distance, 700 kilometers, 
or about 450 miles. By way of Valencia and Tarragona, to return 
via Zaragossa, at least one third farther, excursion tickets were offered 
at about go pesetas, or $18. As we also wished to include the Escorial, 
Burgos, and Zaragossa, we could, by omitting the northern journey to 
Valencia, go to Burgos from Madrid for 31 pesetas, and from Burgos 
to Barcelona for 44 pesetas, or 75 pesetas in all, second class, by a 
roundabout way, with various changes and delays. The rate to Por- 
tugal was 96 pesetas, straight, and 166 for the excursion. From Madrid 
to I run, a distance of 631 kilometers, the fare is, first class, 72 pesetas 
80 centimos, second class 54.60, and third class, 32.80. That is, for 
400 miles, first class, the fare is about $15, or nearly 4 cents per 
mile, and 3 cents second class. We did not wish to go northward, 
however, as our face was turned toward the south, to Toledo. The 
trip to Toledo cost less than two dollars, from Madrid ; and in this 
famous old city there is more of real interest (leaving out Madrid's 
museums) than in the capital itself. 

We were constantly saying to ourselves, " To-morrow we will 
visit Toledo." The Spaniards have a saying: Maiiana (to-morrow); 
siempre manana (always to-morrow) ; and to-morrow never comes ! 

But there was one to-day when we gladly said, This is now, — this 
is the thing we have so long dreamed of, and now it is realized! 
Such was the day in Toledo, — the day w r e first entered it ; that city 
of the Tagus, the golden Tagus, that half encircles it. The river of 
the poet they call it ; because, perhaps, it toils not, nor spins, but 
simply " roars on forever, Oh, its bosom unvexed by keel of any craft." 
The city is called one of the oldest in Europe, and no one who has 
seen it will dare affirm that it is not. Did not the Jews call it 




PUEKTA DEL SOL, TOLEDO. 



TOLEDO, ON THE GOLDEN TAG US. I 25 

Toledoth, the city of their ancestors who forsook Palestine in the 
time of the great Nebuchadnezzar ? It comes into history, at least 
as early as 193 b. c, when it was taken by the Romans, and then 
it was large and well populated. After the Romans, the Goths held 
Toledo, and made it their capital ; here reigned King Wamba, and 
here Roderic, the last king of the Goths, outraged the fair Florinda, 
whose father, Count Julian, aided the advent of the terrible Moors,' 
and thus avenged himself on his king at the expense of his country's 
liberty. Some there are, who will tell you there was no fair Florinda, 
and consequently King Roderic did her no wrong ; but we doubt not 
there was, for have we not seen Florinda's Bath, at the foot of the hill, 
on the marge of the rich-hued Tagus? 

Here, too, we believe, was that scurvy trick played upon old King^ 
Wamba, about twelve hundred years ago, whereby he was deprived 
of his kingdom. He had not wanted the kingdom, in the first place — 
it was rather forced upon him ; but " havings is keepings," and when 
an usurper wanted to usurp, old Wamba stood in the way. So this 
usurper, it is said, one Erxigius, gave Wamba a dose of cold poison 
that plunged the king into a comatose state, by which his attendants 
thought him about to die. Now no king, in those days, could go 
straight up to heaven unless he died in the habit of a monk ; good 
Saint Peter would n't let him in without the cowl. In all haste, then, 
they dressed him in the garb of a monk, and when he " came to " — 
for he didn't die just then, though he has doubtless departed ere 
this — he was as mad as a hornet ; for inasmuch as, according to 
law, once in the cowl never more a king, old Wamba had to make 
the best of it and abdicate, living the rest of his life a monk. 
Sick or well, there was no more royalty for Wamba, and the 
usurper usurped, opening the way for the dissensions that aided 
in the downfall of the kingdom ; for along came the Moors, in 
the year 714, captured Toledo, and dwelt therein about three 
hundred years. 



126 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

Though the impression Toledo leaves upon the visitor is that 
of a Gothic city, yet its finest structures, saving the cathedral, are 
Moorish. The grand old bridge of El Cantara is Romano-Gothic ; 
we cross it in entering the city from the railroad station. Above 
this bridge, and beyond it, towers the stern old Alcazar, standing 
on the brow of the hill covered by the houses of the city. Either 
end is guarded by a massive portal, or tow r er, and through yet another 
gateway, called the Puerta del Sol, you enter the city. This is 
decidedly Moorish, with magnificent horseshoe arches, having those 
graceful curves that carry one's imagination at once to the Alhambra, 
to Africa, and the mosques of Cairo. 

Below the Puerta del Sol is another gate called the Visagra, stand- 
ing on the site of an ancient gateway and itself dating from the year 
1550. Just inside the main entrance to the city is a curious mosque, 
said to be at least eight hundred years old, very small, yet showing 
sixteen Moorish arches, springing from four supporting columns. 
A Greek cross is painted over the archway, the escudo of Alonso VI., 
who conquered Toledo in 1035, and in the mosque heard the first 
mass after its capture. 

Before entering the city, with its narrow and winding .streets, we 
took a general survey of its surroundings by w r alking along the 
encircling alamcda to a point where the Tagus curves around. It is 
a pleasant walk outside the wall. To the right, you look down upon 
the lower terrace, by the river side, where is situated the famous 
Fabrica de Armas (or sword manufactory), the building only a hundred 
years old ; but here are made the " Toledo blades," for which the city 
has been so long celebrated. It is about the only industry that has 
survived from ancient times, and it is said that the temper of the 
swords and sabres made here is still superior. But if one may judge 
from the samples of jack-knives offered here for sale, the water and 
the sand of the Tagus nave lost some of their virtue. 

In a little shop of the town, in a dark and obscure court, we found 



TOLEDO, ON THE GOLDEN TAGUS. 



I27 




BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN, TOLEDO. 



some of the smiths at work on iron jewelry, for which also Toledo 
has a reputation. They seemed to be worthy and legitimate descend- 
ants of Tubal-Cain himself, whose industry and cunning they may 
have inherited direct, for aught we know to the contrary. They 



128 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

manufacture a kind of iron jewelry inlaid with gold, which has a 
certain beauty of its own, and which they sell at high prices. 

Still continuing around the city, beneath the hill on which the main 
part of it is built, we come in sight of the noble Bridge of San Martin, 
above which, in the river, are the remains of Moorish mills. Below 
us are the Baths of Florinda, where, tradition states, the fair daughter 
of Count Julian was bathing when King Roderic saw her and became 
enamoured of her beauty. Leaving the roaring Tagus behind us, and 
entering the gate of the city called the Puerta del Cambron (which 
was rebuilt three hundred years ago), we reach that famous convent- 
church of San Juan de los Reyes, built by Ferdinand and Isabella, 
and consequently nearly four hundred years old. It has the reputa- 
tion of being one of the finest specimens of florid Gothic art in the 
world, as to its interior and its beautiful cloisters. To-day we may 
admire what the barbarous French have left us, — the shields, coronets, 
and Gothic inscriptions springing about the arches, — and w r ander 
through the beautiful cloisters, with their pointed arches, adorned 
with elaborate art. A museum is now shown in one of the clois- 
ters, made up of fragments of statuary, Arabic carvings, and old 
paintings. 

The most fascinating things about this old convent were on the 
outside, in the shape of the chains of captive Christians, hung high 
up on the walls. There are hundreds of them, — heavy iron fetters 
hung in pairs, votive offerings of the Christians who were delivered 
from the Moors at the conquest of Granada. Through four centuries 
of change these chains have hung listless against the walls of San 
Juan, and their wearers, who came forth so gladly to welcome Fer- 
dinand and Isabella with songs of praise for their deliverance, have 
now been dust for near four hundred years. 

This was a Christian convent; but up the hill a bit is a memorial 
of the Jews, who were formerly so numerous in Toledo. Santa Maria 
la Blanca is a Jewish synagogue dating from the twelfth century, 




INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, TOLEDO. 



TOLEDO, ON THE GOLDEN TAGUS. 131 

empty now and without any worshippers, but as beautiful as any 
temple of its size in Toledo. It has the Moorish arches, with polygo- 
nal pillars, and a ceiling with beams from the cedars of Lebanon. 
The earth beneath the pavement is said to have come from Mount 
Zion ; but it is now nearly five hundred years since it was trodden 
by the foot of a child of Israel. 

The Moorish style of architecture prevails, even in these Jewish 
structures, and also in those called Gothic and Christian; but it may 
also be seen in its purity in several buildings. As we were climbing 
one of the narrow streets our guide stopped and knocked at a dilapi- 
dated gate. It was opened by a poor woman, who led the way, with- 
out a word, to a building used as a carpenter's shop, where the walls 
were covered with that intricate stucco-work so richly decorative. 
Time and the smoke of the forge had stained great portions of it, 
and much had fallen away ; but enough remained to show that it 
was once an important dwelling of the Moors. In this very room, 
it is said, a Moorish governor cut off the heads of four hundred chiefs 
of Toledo who had resisted his authority, and whom he invited here 
to dinner and beheaded as they entered. This place is called El 
Taller del Moro. Another house we visited, which is preserved in 
exactly the condition in which the Moors occupied it, with fine in- 
laid ceiling, with tiled floor, and even draperied in the Moorish 
manner. This is most interesting, as there are hardly any houses, 
or even rooms in Spain, that have been preserved as the Moors left 
them. 

Relics of the Goths, the Moors, the Jews, and the so-called Chris- 
tians are strangely mingled in this quaint old city of Toledo, and it 
would well repay one a stay of at least a week. Its great cathedral 
alone needs several days. It is so ancient that they say it was origi- 
nally erected to the Virgin while she was yet on earth, and she fre- 
quently came to see it later on, in company with Saints Peter, Paul, 
and James. It was converted by the conquering Moors into a mosque. 



132 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

This was destroyed in the thirteenth century by Saint Ferdinand, 
and the present cathedral commenced, which was finished in 1492. 
Sculptors and artists from every part were called upon to embellish 
it, and it became the most magnificent Gothic structure of its day ; 
11 it belongs to the pure, vigorous style of the thirteenth century, is 
not inferior to any of the great French cathedrals, and far superior 
in fine and rich furniture, picturesque effect, and artistic objects of 
every kind." The main tower of this cathedral is three hundred 
and twenty-five feet high, and terminates in a slender spire encircled 
with an imitation of the crown of thorns. The different portals 
are rich in sculptures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and 
the bronze doors are most beautiful specimens of their kind. 
There are five naves, four hundred feet long, with eighty-four piers 
and pillars, and the interior is brightened by painted windows, the 
finest as well as the earliest in Spain, some of them dating from 
the early years of the fifteenth century. The carvings of the coro 
are exquisite sculptures in wood, and they have a greater interest for 
being faithful representations of incidents in the campaigns of Isa- 
bella and Ferdinand, and especially of the siege and capture of the 
Alhambra, having been carved in 1495. 

The different chapels are worth pages of description, each chapel 
having as its centre of attraction some bishop, or king, or saint, famous 
in Spain's history from three hundred to six hundred years ago. But 
that around which a most peculiar interest attaches is the Capilla 
Mozarabe, wherein the Mozarabic ritual is performed daily, — the only 
place in Spain where this occurs. The first printed copy of the 
Mozarabic ritual, dated 1502, is yet shown to visitors, and reminds 
one of the attempt by Spain, in the time of Ximenes, to assert its 
independence of Rome. . Through the grated door you may see the 
painting on the wall of the battle of Oran, in 15 14, in which the 
great Cardinal Ximenes was directly engaged. 

The treasures of the cathedral exceed those of perhaps any other 




THE ALCAZAR, TOLEDO. 



TOLEDO, ON THE GOLD EX TAGUS. 1 35 

in Spain ; we have not space here to enumerate them. It is said 
that the French, in 18 10, took away two thousand three hundred 
pounds of silver; but there is a great deal left in plate and shrines 
and relics. The gold cross crowning a custodia of silver weighing 
ten thousand nine hundred ounces is said to have been made from 
the first gold brought by Columbus from the New World. Here 
also is said to be kept the cross of Cardinal Mendoza, which was 
elevated above the Torre de la Vela at the capture of the Alhambra, 
and the sword of Alonzo VI., the conqueror of Toledo. Banners 
are here from the battlefields of Las Navas and Lepanto, and the 
rich mantle of the Virgin, embroidered with pearls and precious 
stones. 

But who can hope adequately to describe Toledo and its treas- 
ures in a single short chapter? Not alone are there treasures in 
gold and silver, in architecture, painting, and sculpture (chiefly sculp- 
tures), but in literature ; for in the old library are shown manuscripts 
of the time of Dante, the works of Saint Gregory, of the thirteenth 
century, a Talmud, a Koran, a Bible illuminated for Cardinal Ximenes, 
and a Pliny of the tenth century. 

We have described enough, we know, to show that Toledo is well 
worth travelling long leagues to visit, and deserving of a protracted 
stay. Unfortunately we could not linger here to breathe in the atmos- 
phere so essential to a finished description. We had to glance here 
and there, to run to this and ride to that ; and though we compassed 
it all, it was with many a backward, lingering glance that we walked 
across the bridge of El Cantara, and sought the train that was to carry 
us to Cordova. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY, AND CORDOVA. 

A KING the night train for Cordova, we made a long 
leap southward, across the provinces of Toledo and 
Cordova, and over the broad plains of La Mancha. 
As it was a night-journey, little was to be seen of the 
country till early morning. But just before break of 
day we reached Manzanares, in the country celebrated as the field 
of the adventures of that redoubtable knight of Spanish romance, 
Don Quixote de la Mancha. It is a flat country, with not much to 
interest the traveller, and one might be pardoned for passing it by 
without a second glance. Only seven miles distant is the Venta de 
Ouesada, where Quixote was knighted; and not far off the Caves 
of Montesinos, where the knight had his most wonderful adventures 
with the enchanted ones. The place where the noble knight did 
penance is in the sierras, to the left of the Venta de Cardenas, and 
the veritable windmills with which Don Quixote had his desperate 
encounter may be seen to the right of the station of Campo de Crip- 
tana, on the road to Valencia. 

As for Toboso, the home of the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, is 
it not well known, and docs it not lie fifteen miles from the impor- 
tant station of Alazar de San Juan, also on the route from Madrid 
to Valencia ? Dear old Quixote ! For a month past we had been 
reading ourselves to sleep with his adventures. Every night after 




DON QUIXOTE. 



DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY, AND CORDOVA. 1 39 

lighting the candles and placing them within reach on the stand we 
popped into bed with the noble " Don " in our hands, and proceeded 
to follow him and the unctuous Sancho Panza. Several nights we 
had fallen asleep in the midst of some adventure, only to continue 
it in our dreams ; and to awake with some direful exploit in pro- 
gress, only to find our candles sputtering, and the avani-couriers of 
dawn strusfelins: into our room. We should like to have seen his 
adventure with the lions, and to have been present when he set free 
the galley slaves. We have in our mind's eye yet that " man of 
goodly aspect, only that his eyes looked at each other," the culprit 
who was so closely guarded and double-ironed. As for Sancho 
Panza, with his sturdy figure, his beloved "dapple," and his strings 
of proverbs, we doubt not we have seen him a dozen times plodding 
along the dusty roads of the plains, only that we have not been 
near enough to hear him converse, and so have not benefited by 
his homely wisdom. It would have been worth the while to see 
him when tossed in a blanket at the inn, or when he was governor 
of the island threatening to comb the court doctor's head with a 
stool. 

All the world shares in this interest in Don Quixote ; it is said 
that when the French vandals passed through La Mancha, eighty 
years ago, they went out of their way a long distance to visit Toboso, 
and instead of maltreating its inhabitants, as their custom was, frater- 
nized with them, — all on account of Quixote. 

Generally bleak and barren, these broad plains in the early days 
of June are clad in freshest verdure; save that the soil shows thin, 
and there are few streams to create life when once the sun has dried 
them up. 

We so wanted to wander through Quixote country, and verify 
the scenes of his adventures, fictitious though they were ! But 
then, we might wander and wander, and so keep on wandering for 
a year, here in Spain, and then not half exhaust it. And with this 



140 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

we console ourselves, — we will come back next year, perhaps, and 
gather up those scattered threads of history that have fallen so loosely 
from our hands. 

But we were now approaching Andalusia, the country made 
famous by the Moors, and Cordova, its chief city during Moorish 
supremacy. Three hundred years nearly, or until 1030, the Moors 
ruled in Spain ; then their power came to an end, and Moslem Spain 
was governed by petty kings. Their strifes and rivalries made pos- 
sible the constant advance southward of the Christian forces, coming 
down from their mountain fastnesses of Northern Spain. 

The last great attempt at universal conquest, operating through 
Spain, was by the Almohades of Africa, in the year 1212. It took 
two months to convey this vast army across the straits ; but they 
were met and scattered by Alfonso II. of Castile on the plains of 
Tolosa. The banner of Alfonso is said to hang in the cathedral of 
Burgos to-day. 

At the station in Cordova we were pounced upon by the omni- 
present cochcro, and taken off to the Fonda Espanola. Though it 
was very hot, we sallied out without delay in search of the sights 
of Cordova. Our hotel was on the Calle de Gran Capitan, and 
the great centre of attraction, the cathedral, was at some distance, 
through the narrowest and most tortuous streets imaginable. One 
may "hook it" through Cordova in a day or so by a judicious use 
of his time; but it is rather a place to linger in, — a city for inves- 
tigations and prowlings about, with a reasonable expectation of find- 
ing a surprise at almost every corner. 

And there are many of them, — in truth, Cordova is nearly all 
corners, like an antiquated donkey ; though farther than this the 
simile does not apply. How we found our way across and around 
the city is to this day a matter of wonder; perhaps it was our prac- 
tice in the streets of Burgos, for there we used to lose our way a 
dozen times a day. 




DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO PANZA. 



DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY, AND CORDOVA. 143. 

The cathedral is the great attraction of Cordova; but first we 
visited the Alcazar, — not, like that of Seville, a magnificent monu- 
ment of Arabic architecture, but simply a wall-enclosed garden of 
fine trees, fountains, and flowers. The great walls around it are 
Roman, to be sure, or Gothic, and massive towers stand up near 
it with the antiquity of a thousand years upon them. The real 
building is now used as a prison, and was once occupied by the 
Inquisition. 

The Roman bridge that spans the Guadalquivir just beyond 
the cathedral is a glorious old structure, with its many arches, and 
its great square tower on the country side. We went across one 
morning and photographed it, and also that beautiful bridge. The 
old mills just beneath it, built by the Moors, may yet be seen grind- 
ing the grist of the conquerors of their builders. What the Romans 
and the Arabs built in Spain they built to last; as witness, their 
bridges, their mills, and their temples. The Guadalquivir pours 
over the semicircular dam with tumultuous roar, and winds away 
toward the hill beyond. 

The entrance to the city from the river side is through a large 
Doric gateway, — the gate of the bridge, — and a little beyond is a 
queer specimen of a column erected in honor of Saint Rafael, the 
patron of the city. The guide-books tell us that this old bridge is 
attributed to Octavius Augustus ; its foundations are Roman at least, 
and it is quite a thousand years old. The bridge and the crumbling 
towers give one an impression of Cordova's antiquity ; but there are 
churches and convents here that carry one well back to the period 
when the Moslems were great and flourishing here. 

Leaving these minor structures, let us visit the cathedral, — the 
rnezquiLx (or mosque) as it is still called. The time was when Cor- 
dova was young, but it was beyond the time of the Romans, for the 
Carthaginians knew the city as the Gem of the South. It is said 
that Caesar destroyed twenty-eight thousand of its population be- 



144 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

cause it sided with Pompey, and a patrician colony was founded on 
its ruins. It became later the capital of the Goths, and still later 
of the Arabs. Here flourished literature, art, and science as in no 
other part of Europe at that time. The Arabs of Cordova kept 
alight the lamp of learning during the dark ages when it was all 
but extinguished elsewhere. " The influence of the Spanish Arabs," 
says Prescott, " is discernible, not so much in the amount of knowl- 
edge, as in the impulse which they communicated to the long dor- 
mant energies of Europe. Their invasion was coeval with the com- 
mencement of that long night of darkness which divides the ancient 
from the modern world." 

It was near the beginning of the caliphate of Cordova that the 
great Abderahman conceived the idea of building such a mosque that 
all the world would come to wonder at it. Then he sent to all parts 
of the Moslem world for columns to adorn his temple; and they came 
to him, from not only Moslem countries, but from France, from Seville 
and Tarragona in Spain, from Leo the Emperor of Constantinople, 
and from the temples of Carthage. As the mosque was built on the 
site of a Roman Temple to Janus, doubtless this heathen structure 
contributed to the enrichment of its successor. And they may be 
seen to-day, — these thousand monoliths of jasper, verde-antique, and 
porphyry, a petrified forest of the true Arabian Nights. 

There were originally twelve hundred columns, the historians tell 
us, but the number now is ten hundred and ninety-six, — enough to 
give one visions of vastness, conceptions of grandeur, and ideas of the 
infinite. The mosque itself covers four acres; the roof is about forty 
feet high, with double arches above the columns, some of them like 
interlaced ribbons. There are nineteen longitudinal and thirty-three 
transversal aisles, besides several chapels in the laterals, and the great 
coro and capilla mayor in the "centre. What a glorious effect was 
produced upon the beholder when all these aisles were open on every 
side, and one could look down these vistas of columns, may be faintly 




CHAPEL IN THE MOSQUE AT CORDOVA. 



DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY, AND CORDOVA. 147 

realized to-day by standing at the farther end and glancing toward 
one of the doorways. Beautiful stained-glass windows give a fine 
effect to other vistas, though it is rather tawdry as compared to 
the solemn magnificence of the open views. Well may this grand 
mosque have served as a Mecca for the Spanish Moslems ; and it 
is said to have ranked in sanctity " second only to the famous Kaaba 
at Mecca." 

We cannot express the delight with which we wandered through 
the mazes of this forest of pillars, looking down the long aisles, peering 
into the gloomy chapels, the half-ruined Capilla de Villariciosa, the 
ancient niaksurah, where were kept the gold and silver vessels of the 
temple, and the great Koran, which two men could hardly lift. A 
Gothic inscription, date 1409, may be seen here, also inscriptions in 
Cufic and African. Beyond is the " holy of holies," or Ceca, the 
point toward the true Mecca, — East, — where is the exquisitely 
arched and sculptured mihrab (or sanctuary). The mihrabs that we 
examined in Africa, in Algiers, Tlemcen, and Oran, were also beau- 
tiful ; but this excels them all, with its interlaced arches and beautiful 
mosaics. These latter are said to be Roman-Byzantine, and were sent 
by the Emperor Leo, of Constantinople, in the year 965, accompanied 
by a Greek, who taught the Moors the art. A celebrated Koran in 
illuminated manuscript was treasured here ; but when the city was 
taken by Alonzo it was torn in pieces by the soldiery. 

Some three hundred and sixty years ago the Spaniards made an 
"improvement" in the mosque by introducing the large coro — a 
church in itself — into the centre. Though beautiful in its way, with 
its brass balustrades and carven-seated silleria, yet as Charles V. 
(so often quoted) is said to have said: "It is only what might have 
been built anywhere else, but they destroyed what was antique in 
the world." 

Fortunately for us, at the time of our visit a feast-day occurred, — 
just what it was w r e don't know, nor care, for every day in the calendar 



148 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



has its saint, and every saint its feast-day; but, brought out from 
their concealment, rich tapestries were hung upon the walls of the 
opposite church, and an altar erected in the street, with a fine painting 
and a good one, behind it. 

About six o'clock the procession was formed; people flocked 

hither from all quarters of 
the city, and the streets 
were crowded. Foresee- 
ing this state of tilings, 
we climbed the belfry- 
tower and gazed down 
calmly upon the multi- 
tudes beneath. Flocks 
of boys in white gowns 
and priests in petticoats 
gathered about the doors 
of the cathedral, and soon 
they began to fetch out 
their candlesticks and 
holy images, — brass and 
silver and gilt. Every boy 
carried a candle. Then 
there were troops of girls, 
— hundreds of them. 
They stretched half 
around the great mosque, 
and the line of images 
was unbroken for a long 
distance. 

A band was in attendance and played a lovely air, but soon the 
music died away, and the noise of shuffling feet ceased about the time 
the sun went down ; the shadow of the tower that had crept slowly 




VALENCIAN LABORER. 




INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE AT CORDOVA. 

\ 



DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY, AND CORDOVA. 151 

across the roof-tops across the river and out over the plain beyond 
now lost itself in the gathering gloom of night. Yet we lingered, 
looking again and again over this quaint old city, loath to leave it to 
itself. Beyond the roofs of tiles, here and there stood up the mas- 
sive towers of Goths and Romans, rich-hued and time-defying; cool 
and dark rose the near Sierra, with its terraced gardens, its hermi- 
tages, and its vales paraisos (or vales of paradise); while clear-cut 
against the distant sky stood out the castle of Almodoxar, eight miles 
away. 

Beneath us lay the court of oranges, the grand entrance-plaza to 
the mosque, its ranks of orange-trees so planned as to be a continuation 
of the lines of columns within the temple, and its fountain to refresh 
all true believers. A few palms rise above the orange-trees, but they 
are wind-torn and scraggy ; yet they remind the student of history of 
their introduction here by Abderahman more than eleven hundred 
years ago. " Beautiful palm, thou art, like me, a stranger here ; but 
the western breezes kiss thy branches, thy roots strike into fertile soil, 
and thy head rises into a pure sky." 

A curious type of a Spaniard, says the Baron Ch. D'Avillier, in 
his work on Spain, is the baratero, who is a man from the dregs of 
the people, but who is dangerously expert in handling the knife, and 
who trades upon the terror he inspires, by exacting blackmail from 
fortunate gamesters. Each town has a certain number of men of 
no profession, called iahitres (or gamblers), whose industry is play. 
The edicts of Alphonso the Wise against tahurerias (or gambling- 
houses) serve to show that during his time the love of play was 
sufficiently strong to warrant State interference ; and if we are to 
believe the testimony of a Sevillian author, Fajardo, the vice was 
still as deeply rooted toward the end of the seventeenth century. 
This author gives an account of the tricks practised by the swindlers 
in the pay of the grecs of the period. To-day the player of Spain has 
less faith in chance than in the address of his fingers. The garitos are 



152 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

not the only resorts of gamblers ; they meet everywhere, — on the 
shore, under the shade of a boat, beneath the umbrageous trees, or 
under an old wall in some obscure corner. The parties are made 
up of vagrants, to whom are added soldiers or sailors. They play 
pecao or carie ; their faces are agitated and unquiet-looking, affected 
either by the passion of play or by fear of seeing an alguacil arrive. 
Suddenly, without knowing whence he came, a man of pale com- 
plexion, wearing a sinister expression of face, and a bold insulting 
aspect, appears in the midst of the group. He has a robust frame, 
and carries his jacket over his broad shoulder, while his short trou- 
sers are held up by a wide silk waistband. He is a baratero, who 
has thus unceremoniously installed himself among the players, and 
who calmly announces that he has come to deduct his share of the 
profits. The amount of this blackmail is usually small, — about ten 
centimes to the game. 

" Ahi va eso! " cried the baratero, casting down into the middle 
of the group something done up in a dirty piece of paper, which had 
probably served to wrap up fried fish. It was a packet of cards, — 
baraja, that is. " What does it signify if you play with these cards ? 
Here no one dare play, but with my cards." If the players are in- 
clined to submit, the baratero pockets his cuartos, and the play passes 
off quietly. But it sometimes happens that in the group there is 
an awkward character to deal with, a valiente, — valiant man, literally, 
— a mozo cruo (an almost untranslatable Andalusian expression, which 
denotes a youth endowed with the attributes of pluck, hardihood, 
and pride), who would fearlessly reply, " Camara, nojotros no nccesi- 
tamos jeso /" ("Comrade, we have no need of them!") as he hands 
back the cards to the baratero ; who replies, " Chiqtiiyo, venga aqui 
el barato y sonsoniche ! " (" Boy, make haste and hand me the barato: 
not another word ! ") The mozo cruo then draws a long knife from 
his vest, and opening it with a clang of its spring, drives the point 
close to the stakes, and exclaims, while he glares defiance at the 




A BARATERO. 



DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY, AND CORDOVA. I 55 

intruder, " Aqui no se cobra el barato sino con la punta de una navaja " 
(' Here the barato is only reached by the point of the navaja "). The 
challenge is usually accepted, and the adversaries pronounce the 
solemn " Vamonos ! " or " Vamos alii ! " (" Let us go ! " ) or, " Vamos a 
echarun viaje! " (" Let us make a journey ! " ) It is their jacta est alea. 
Then repairing to some retired spot, the navajas or punals are drawn, 
gleam for an instant in the light, and one of the combatants is sacri- 
ficed. But crimes of this sort do not always remain unpunished : 
it sometimes happens that two or three months later one hears in the 
streets of the town the sound of a small bell, and the voice of a man 
asking alms para decir misas por el alma de tin pobre que van a 
ajusticar (" to say masses for the soul of an unfortunate man who 
is about to be executed "). 

At other times two barateros meet on the same ground, and either 
agree to divide their share of the stakes, or to fight a duel, which is 
certain to terminate fatally to one of them ; or it may be that the 
baratero who surprises a group of players is merely a blustering bully, 
who is only audacious with the timid, and skulks off when he encoun- 
ters a formidable foe, — a type known by the name of maton, the 
matachin, the valenton, the perdonavidas, etc. When two braves of 
this sort meet, a most amusing dialogue takes place between them, 
of which we will try to give some notion, although the Andalusian 
language loses greatly by translation into another tongue. 

" Ea ! it is here that the braves are about to perform," cries one 
of them, as he makes the spring of his navaja ring. 

" Tire oste ! Draw, comrade Juan," cries the other as he walks 
round his adversary. 

" Vente a mi, Curriyo ! Not so much skulking around." 

" It is you, zeno Juan, who leap like a little dog." 

" Ea, Dios mio ! Hold, while you commend your soul to God ! " 

" Have I wounded you ? " 

"No, it is nothing." 



156 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

11 Ah ! well, I mean to slay you with a blow. You may ask for 
extreme unction." 

" Escape, por Dios, Curriyo ! You see you are in my power, 
and I mean to bore a hole in you larger than the arch of yonder 
bridge." 

This dialogue would last for more than an hour if the friends 
did not interpose ; and the two adversaries, who are ready to be 
appeased, close their knives and adjourn to some tabema, where 
their wrath is drowned in a canez de jarez. 

One can almost foretell the end of the baratero : it is on the 
scaffold, erected in some public place to carry out the punishment 
of the garrote. 

The days were hot, tropical, intense, but the nights were cool. 
At mid-day little life was stirring ; but towards five o'clock the people 
came pourjng out of their houses in swarms, and filled the streets and 
plazas. The noise of their assembling, the roar of voices, lasted well 
toward midnight ; at sunset, when the Sierra was crowned with great 
crimson banks of clouds, the squares were filled with multitudes, 
sitting at tables sipping drinks and ices, and promenading the central 
walks. We regretted that we could not stay another week in ancient 
Cordova, it was so quaint and cleanly, and the halo of history came 
so near to earth. 




CHAPTER IX. 

SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. 

N a study of the Arabs in Spain, the two cities of Seville and 
Cordova should be grouped together, for they were inter- 
dependent, and the fall of the first but hastened that of the 
other. We wanted to linger a longer time in Cordova ; 
but the world moves on and on, and one can't stay always 
in one spot. So we ventured on once more. . 

Until two o'clock that afternoon we travelled southeast into the 
heart of the Province of Sevilla. It was a pleasant country, undu- 
lating at first, then more level, with fields of wheat and barley stretch- 
ing as far as the eye could reach, with hills and knolls covered with 
olive-trees and broad stretches of vineyards. 

The first day of our arrival we saw little of Seville, because we did 
not arrive until well into the night ; the second day was the Sabbath. 
But we anticipate. Seville was full and running over; for all the 
world (immediately contiguous to the district) was there, and all the 
world seemed to have taken with it wife and children. Hotels were 
filled, boarding-houses likewise, and the hackmen were more impudent 
than usual; for a hackman, be it known, rises and falls in barometric 
scale with the influx and departure of strangers. Double rates were 
sanctioned by the authorities, and double rates were charged. Fortu- 
nately there were but two vacant rooms. at the Spanish hotel, El Cisne 
and Nueva York (the Swan and New York). Just why a hotel of 



is8 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



pretensions should saddle itself with such a name as this our readers 
know as well as we. 

The great fair was the theme of every scribbler for weeks. It had 
attracted, as we have said, the attention of all natives and strangers. 
Just outside the city walls, not far from the banks of the Guadalquivir, 
hundreds of booths and shanties had been erected for the aCCOmmoda- 



'fe 




ON THE WAV TO THE FAIR. 



tion of the venders of many articles, and for the temporary sojourn 
of the families of the Sevillanos, especially in the afternoon and even- 
ing. And the city fathers had outdone all previous efforts — for this 
fair is an annual occurrence — in providing entertainment for the 
crowds. They had barely recovered from the Solcmnidades of Holy 
Week, which took place between March 25 and April 2 ; after allow- 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. I 59 

ing themselves a week to breathe in, they sprang to their second task 
with renewed ardor. Easter Sunday was particularly " solemn and 
beautiful," to judge from the official announcement at the time. In 
the morning the city officials waited upon the archbishop at his palace, 
to conduct him to the cathedral for high mass, and in the afternoon 
they all skipped off to a " grand and solemn bull-fight!" The offi- 
cial announcement reads somewhat like the advertisements of the 
" sacred " concerts that take place in the theatres of American cities 
of a Sunday: " In the evening of April 1, Day of the Resurrection, 
will be celebrated a grand bull-fight, with bulls from the renowned 
hacienda of Don Diego Benjumea, and with the celebrated swordsmen, 
Frascuelo, Mazzantini, and Espartero, as fighters. At night, the spring 
season will be inaugurated in the theatre San Fernando." 

Well, after this they took a needed rest until the 15th of April, 
when the fair was publicly opened by a bull-fight. This Sunday bull- 
fight was announced as something especially fine, inasmuch as the 
bulls were to come from the hacienda of the Excellentissimo Seiior 
Don Jose Orozco, and were expected to die game only after ripping 
up numerous horses, putting the picadors to the peril of their lives, 
and furnishing fun for the million. Other bull-fights were announced 
for the week, but all were urged to patronize that of the Sunday, as our 
citizens are urged to attend the "sacred" concerts and minstrel-shows, 
for the recreation it would give them. On Monday, there was to be a 
distribution of bread to the poor, with fu egos artificiales (or fire-works) 
at night. On Tuesday, grand competitive concurso of bands of music, 
with fifteen hundred pesetas as first prize, eight hundred for the second, 
and honorable mention for the third. On Wednesday, gran corrida de 
toros (bull-fight), in which eight bulls were to be slain, and four espadas 
to take part, — Frascuelo, Mazzantini, Espartero, and Guerrero; also 
elevation of fantoclies and fnegos artificiales. On Thursday, another 
bull fight, another elevation of fantoches, more fire-works; also another 
sacrifice of eight bulls. On Friday, otro gran corrida de toros (another- 



l6o RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

bull-fight), with eight bulls from the ganaeria of the Excellentissima 
Senora Marquesa Vinda del Saltillo. As the excellent Marquesa was 
a widow and a woman, every man with a spark of gallantry was 
expected to attend. Report says that the widow's bulls fought well, 
and did not cause the blush of shame to mantle her fair cheek. 

Anent these bull-fights, an acquaintance told us the following 
story : A Spanish friend of his came to his door one night, late, and 
after gaining entrance, threw himself upon the bed, with sobs and 
cries. For a long time he lay there overpowered by some bitter grief. 
At last he said in broken tones: "My sister — dead. I must go 
to the funeral." He refused to be comforted. "She is dead — and 
that is not all. I must go to the funeral ; and if I go to the funeral 
I can't go to the bull-fight ! Oh, my sister ! my sister ! Oh, why did 
you die at this time! My sister — the bull-fight. To think, — eight 
bulls, four espadas! Oh, my sister — the bull-fight ! Alas ! why did you 
die at this time! I am most miserable — my sister — the toros ! 
Never shall I see them again ! " 

To a stranger, this fair, this assembling together of thousands 
of natives, especially such a concourse of the paisanos (or country 
people), could not fail of being interesting and instructive. As we 
were walking one morning along the paseo on the banks of the 
Guadalquivir we heard a confused tinkling of bells and shouts. 
Bearing down upon us was a vast flock of Merino sheep, large- 
formed, shaggy-coated, filling the road for a long distance, guided 
by gaunt shepherds in sheepskin, with long pikes, and their provision 
laden upon a diminutive donkey. 

At another turn we were nearly run over by a galloping drove 
of bulls and oxen, which came tearing down a cross avenue, followed 
and headed by several wild-looking vaqueros on scrawny steeds, and 
brandishing pikestaffs like lances. An immense drove of hogs came 
next, and then more sheep, more cattle, droves of horses, troops of 
lonkeys, the latter always heavily laden with panniers full of young- 




HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS, SEVILLE. 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. 1 63 

sters and women, astride or riding sideways, crab-fashion. And so 
they came in — thousands of animals, four-legged and two-legged — 
and camped in the open place set apart between the great tobacco 
factory, the garden of the Duke Montpensier, and the walls of the 
ancient city. At night their camp-fires were lighted, they sang and 
danced, and extorted doubtful music from primitive instruments. 

Every afternoon the paseos are crowded with visitors, poor and 
rich, high and low. In every booth the Andalusian dance went on, 
attracting crowds of observers at the doors. Such a number of 
fair sweet faces and mischievous black eyes it would be difficult to 
find assembled again — until the time comes for another fair. 

Not the least interesting places were the side-shows, which were 
wonderfully like those at our own fairs and cattle-shows. Thus there 
was the Gran Vista del Mundo (the Greatest Collection of Marvels 
on Earth), the headless woman, the Sphinx, the Aluseo Anatbmico y 
etc. Standing in front of these were dirty and ragged showmen, loud 
of mouth, scant of modesty, and as impudent as Barnum himself. It 
was a vast crowd, but it was a very good-natured one. We mingled 
with it every day in the week, saw hundreds, yes thousands, of men 
drinking, and engaged in friendly altercation, but did not see one 
man really intoxicated. 

Towards the end of the week the crowd of countrymen began 
to melt away; tents were pulled up, and the flocks and herds started 
on their journey over the dusty roads ; and on Saturday when we took 
our morning w ? alk to the fair grounds there was but a small portion 
of them left. We missed them very much, for in the morning, 
later on, there were but few people out in the gardens and along 
the river. 

A bridge, a fine stone and iron structure, spans the Guadalquivir 
River, about half a mile distant from the centre of the city. The bull- 
ring lies about half-way between these two, fronting the river. Close 
to this, on the bank, stands the Tower of Gold (Torre del Oro). 



1 64 RAMBLES IN SUXXY SPAIN. 

We had always thought this tower was so called because of the 
color of its porcelain dome, but believe now it; derived its name 
from the fact that gold had been stored there in olden times. 

The grand paseo of Seville really begins about here, and also a 
system of gardens that run along and near the left bank of the 
Guadalquivir for more than a mile. Most fragrant and delicious are 
these gardens of roses and orange-trees, where song-thrushes warble 
night and day. Banks and bowers of roses perfume the air, and the 
nearly-opened orange-buds scent every breeze. It was our custom to 
ramble out through the city gate every morning, in the direction of 
the gardens, halting at a building in the centre of one of them to take 
our morning coffee. 

This building, which had been erected as a summer theatre, was 
of a light and graceful structure, with open sides, a handsome stage 
and scenery. As we would sit there sipping our coffee, the balmy 
breezes, incense-laden, would come drifting in, and the birds in the 
laurel-trees made musical the morning hours. In the evening — for 
such was the fascination of this place that we frequently went out 
there after dark — the garden was enlivened by delightful music from 
the violins, guitars, and tambourines of an excellent band of estudi- 
antes, — true Spanish students, — with graceful cloak, cocked hat, and 
wooden spoon. 

We are now ready to enter the country containing the richest 
remains of Moorish cities ; for while the Goths bestowed upon Spain 
the rich gift of expressive idioms, the architecture fittest to survive 
is that only of the Moors. Seville under the Moors was a seat of 
learning, and a centre of silk manufacture. The Moors held it five 
hundred years, surrendering to King Ferdinand I. in December, 1248. 
\\ 'hat those five hundred years of Moorish possession brought forth, 
we see to-day in the architectural remains, the finest of Seville. 

But we are in danger of side-tracking ourselves in these reflec- 
tions ; the broad road of Spanish history lay shining before us, yet we 




THE GIRALDA, SEVILLE. 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. I 67 

wander off into a by-path. For this lapse let us now make amends. 
We had intended to describe the sights of Seville, the city lying in 
the curve of the Guadalquivir. Its streets are so crooked that one 
finds difficulty in going to any place at all; in fact, you cannot go 
straight, for every hundred yards there is a turning or a corner. 

We had started out many times, with the fixed determination of 
visiting a certain spot, and had as many times returned without reach- 
ing it. At last, in despair of knowing the city in any other way, we 
went up into the tower of the Giralda, with a map, and then de- 
scended and made the entire circuit of Seville. You know, of course, 
that the Giralda is the lion of Seville, sharing its honors with the 
Alcazar. Perhaps we need not repeat that it was built by the Moors, 
at the command of Abu Yacub, in the year 1196. It was a good 
enough tower as it was, and two hundred and fifty feet in height, 
but the Spaniards added another belfry in 1568, making it one hun- 
dred feet higher. The original shape of the tower was that of the 
great minarets of Africa, such as are in Tlemcen and Tangiers. 
That the Spaniards improved it must be open to doubt ; but the 
crowning abomination is that bronze figure of Faith, called the 
" Girandillo," with its great flapper, supposed to represent the banner 
of Constantine. It is visible from afar off, and at a distance looks 
like a great pouter pigeon ; a nearer view gives the banner the appear- 
ance of the broad leaf of an old-fashioned tea-table. Wherever you 
may go in the city and its vicinity this inconstant Faith (for it is a 
weathercock) may always be seen, and as it rises at the end of some 
narrow street, ever attracts the attention. It seems a part of the great 
cathedral itself, as it is, indeed, its belfry; for the ancient Spaniards 
were not averse to making useful the public works as well as the 
houses of the Moors. A mumbling of prayers, a dash of holy water, 
and a little whitewash, and presto ! the Moorish minaret was the 
belfry of the Christian church, and the mosque, served in a like 
manner, the church itself. As in ancient times the Muezzins sum- 



1 68 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

moned the faithful to prayer and repose, so now the jangling of many- 
bells serves a like purpose for the so-called Christians. 

It matters not to us, Catholic or Mohammedan, so we may climb 
the tower and feast our eyes upon the prospect spread below. You 
ascend (after paying the portress two reals), by a series of ramps of 
very easy incline, to the top of the great tower, where the bells are 
hung ; these bells are named after the apostles, we believe, and are 
of every shape and size and tone. Just before sunset is the best 
time for the ascent ; we know, because we have tried it at all hours. 
Immediately beneath you is the cathedral, with its vast gray domes, 
its hundreds of flying buttresses, its towers and pinnacles, looking 
like an unfinished dwelling of the Cyclops. Troops of swallows 
skim the air at this hour, and scores of sparrow-hawks pounce down 
from their lairs in tower and belfry. Beneath, again, is the patio of 
orange-trees, around which are the priest's quarters, and structures 
dependent upon the cathedral. 

The fragrance of orange-blossoms sometimes reaches to this height, 
as well as does the din from the streets. An ancient city like this, 
with all its structures of imperishable stone, with roofs, tiles, and 
narrow streets, presents somewhat the appearance of a vast rocky 
plain with hillocks and rocky mounts and innumerable rivulets 
wandering through, which have worn deep channels in them, like 
miniature Colorado canons. These rivulets are the streets, overhung 
by high houses, and which pour forth floods of humanity, — hundreds 
of men and women, boys and girls, crazily flitting about, consuming 
the precious moments of their worthless lives. 

Being elevated far above our fellow-mortals, we can look down 
upon them with calm contempt, — as we do, improving this opportu- 
nity for reflections upon their follies. But the hives of these insects 
are far more interesting than they, and there they lie before us, • 
an agglomeration of stone cells, stretching away and away, with the 
river bounding them on two sicks, and on two others the verdant plain. 




INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, SEVILLE. 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. 171 

The walls of Seville, it is said, are more than a league in circuit ; 
but you might walk around for hours without seeing a wall, so much 
have they been incorporated into the city itself. In our morning 
walk we did, finally, find some noble ruins of great walls with towers 
and gates, — massive, time-defying, but altogether useless. Some 
of the city gates are worth studying to-day, and all of the plazas 
are worth visiting. Looking down upon the sea of roofs, nearly 
every house seems covered with a garden ; for the guttered tiles 
have retained moisture and silt enough to give attachment to mil- 
lions of plants, and these were in full bloom, so that masses of greens 
and yellows mingled with the rich reds of the tiles. 

The plazas appear merely as small openings in this stone city. 
Nearest to the tower is the Plaza del Triunfo (or Place of Triumph), 
bounded by the Cathedral, the Alcazar, and the Lonja. In the far 
end of the city is a neglected plaza containing the famous statues of 
Hercules, of Roman origin, yet retaining strength and beauty, though 
corroded by the elements through many centuries. 

The plazas are breathing-places only, and do not offer that free- 
dom and enjoyment of the gardens of Delicias, and the paseos along 
the Guadalquivir. Few trees grow in them ; their stone benches 
are cold at evening and exposed to the sun during the day, and the 
stranger in the city is not likely to fall in love with the plazas. 

The sun, which all day has blazed away his fiercest rays at the 
city, is now sinking rapidly toward the hills beyond the Guadal- 
quivir, his store of ammunition exhausted, and bestowing upon us 
the blessed period of the twilight ; levelled rays glance from roof to 
roof, half an orb only peers above the horizon, and lengthened shad- 
ows stretch along the plain. At last he is out of sight; only the 
banks of crimson clouds with golden borders betray his recent exit. 
A grateful coolness pervades the air, and now the multitudes pour 
forth into the streets and plazas to enjoy the evening out of doors. 

Cool and dark, by day as well as by night, is the great cathedral, 



172 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

with its treasure dimly visible in the soft light that streams through 
the ninety beautiful windows. To describe these treasures of art 
and history would need more time and more space than are now at 
my disposal. Suffice it to enumerate some of the things that attract 
the crowds of tourists hither. Should you enter by the doorway at 
the foot of the tower you might notice the wooden effigy of a croco- 
dile hung in chains far overhead, and an elephant tusk, — presents, 
these, from the grand Soldan of Africa some six centuries ago. Im- 
mediately in front and behind the high altar is the Capilla Real 
(the Royal Chapel), containing the remains of Saint Ferdinand in a 
shrine of bronze and silver, crystal and gold. The banner and 
sword, and an image of the Virgin which this conqueror of Anda- 
lusia carried at his saddle-bow, are also shown. 

Beyond is the Sacristia Mayor, with precious paintings by 
Murillo and Pedro Campana, the immense silver custodia (or silver 
temple), four stories high, el tenebrario (the great bronze candlestick), 
twenty-five feet high, and other treasures. The chapels, with fine 
marbles and paintings, are numerous on every side ; perhaps that 
containing Murillo's famous vision of San Antonio is the most 
sought after. The high altar, the choir, the exquisitely sculptured 
organs, — all these claim the attention ; but that which oftenest drew 
us to the cathedral was the marble slab above the remains of Fer- 
nando Columbus, — the same marble that once covered the ashes of 
Columbus. The dead discoverer was first placed to rest in the Con- 
vent of St. Francis, at Valladolid ; but six years later he was removed 
to the Carthusian monastery at Seville, where a costly monument 
was raised over his remains by Ferdinand, with the inscription : 
" A Castilla y Leon, Mundo Nuevo did Colon." 

The most interesting of all Seville's attractions is, of course, that 
palace of the ancient Moors, — the Alcazar. It not only retains the 
name but the pronunciation of the Arabs ; for, departing from es- 
tablished rules, the Spaniards speak of it as the Alcazar instead of 




MOORISH ARCHES OF THE ALCAZAR, SEVILLE. 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. I 7 5, 

the Alcazar. This beautiful palace we almost despair of describing 
to our readers. Nearly all of the seventy-eight apartments are rich 
in mosaics and fanciful arabesques. Only a detailed description 
(which present space at our disposal forbids) can convey an adequate 
idea of its beauty. The great central Patio of the Princesses, they 
tell us, was so called .because here were gathered the beautiful 
maidens, one hundred in number, sent as annual tribute to the 
Moorish king. The most glorious hall is that of the Ambassadors, 
with its lofty " half-orange " ceiling of golden honeycomb work. 

Beautiful as it is, the Alcazar has a superior in the Alhambra, 
which has a great advantage from its position alone. No garden 
that w r e have yet seen, however, can vie with that attached to the 
Alcazar, with its fantastic forms of shrub and tree, its delicious 
orange and laurel hedges, its kiosks, fountains, fish-ponds, and fra- 
grant flowers. Rich in reminiscences of royalty are the Alcazar 
and the garden ; of kings, and Spanish, from Masa the Moor to 
Pedro the Cruel, Charles V., and the disgusting Philips ; not to 
speak of such as, in our own time, paraded their follies before the 
world. A great wall surrounds both garden and palace, and, as 
with the Alhambra, the visitor has no suspicion of so much mag- 
nificence until he has passed the portals. 

A more modern palace, copied after the architecture of the Moors, 
is that called the Casa de Pilatos, because said to be built in imita- 
tion of the house of Pilate, in Jerusalem. In tile mosaic it has no 
equal, perhaps, except in the Alcazar and the Alhambra, and the 
visitor walks in wonder through its marvellous halls and corridors. 

Of churches and convents Seville possesses more than enough, 
even though many have been destroyed by the vandal French and 
suppressed by government One should see San Lorenzo, with its 
fine paintings, the splendid roof of San Clemento, San Pablo, and 
San Pedro with its Moorish tower ; also San Isadora, and Santa 
Maria Blanca. In the Caridad (or charity hospital), or rather in 



176 RAMBLES, IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

the church attached, are several Murillos, among them his finest 
works: "The Loaves and Fishes," "Moses striking the Rock," and 
a " Saint John of God." The last seems to be the best picture by 
this artist, — the best small picture we have seen. 

To see Murillos in numbers, without respect to their merit, one 
should visit the Museo, where are twenty or thirty by the great mas- 
ter, as well as others by painters of great fame in Spain. This col- 
lection is carefully catalogued and arranged for intelligent study. 
The building itself containing the paintings is very fine ; and the 
side saloons and obscure galleries are full of paintings of great 
merit, which are doomed to obscurity because of the super-excellence 
of the greater works. 

Perhaps our readers would like to go with us to the bull-ring, 
and there witness, through our eyes, that national pastime. It is a 
brutal spectacle, we must admit, and a survival of the gladiatorial 
combats of the ancient Romans. But, assuming that we did not 
go there de gusto (or from choice), but out of a sense of duty as it 
were, we will proceed to describe what we saw. One day as we 
meandered down the street during the week of the fair we found 
our progress barred by a crowd, every male member of which had 
his hat in his hand ; for a long procession was passing, bearing in 
its midst the most holy custodia and other relics from the cathe- 
dral. The long street was entirely canopied, and the balconies on 
either side filled with gay and beautiful senoras and senoritas, shield- 
ing their eves from the sun by means of parasols and fans. This 
procession paraded the principal streets and then disappeared beneath 
the lofty domes of the cathedral. We followed the crowd, of course, 
and learned that the greater portion of them were going, in the after- 
noon, to the bull-fight. 

The Judge remarked that this was our opportunity. Our Spanish 
education would not be complete without a glimpse at least of the 
national sport; so it was resolved that the Judge should purchase our 




THE PICADOR. 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. I 79 

party some tickets in the sombra, which he did, and at the proper 
time all were assembled at the gate of the great building. A dense 
crowd was fighting for admittance, although it was an hour before 
the performance was to begin, and we had to struggle hard to secure 
our seats. But it was a good-natured crowd mainly, and when we 
were once inside we had no difficulty in selecting our places; then 
we turned to watch the thousands of others now pouring into the 
great amphitheatre. The bull-ring is surrounded on all sides by a 
barrier some five feet high, back of which is a narrow space, and above 
this rise the terraces of stone seats, tier above tier, the topmost sur- 
mounted by a roofed corridor. The best seats are in the shade ; 
the great amphitheatre is divided into sol and sombra (or sun and 
shade), those in the shade being twice the price of those in the sun. 
As the sunny side is very hot and glaring, all those who could, 
bought seats in the shade ; even the ragged beggars, whose filth and 
misery were almost impossible to imagine, fought hard to get seats 
where the heat was not too intense. At last the hour approached. 
In a great box in the upper row, canopied and adorned with flags, 
sat the presidente (the master of ceremonies), surrounded by his friends. 
At a given signal a gate was thrown open, and 'in pranced the alcalde 
(or master of the ring), who put his spirited horse through a variety 
of evolutions that quite captivated the crowd. He advanced to a 
point beneath the president's box, and begged of him the key, assur- 
ing him that if he would srant that favor he would let in one of the 
most magnificent bulls in the world. The key was tossed to him, 
and he galloped back to the opposite side of the arena, and then 
entered the bull-fighters ; the capeadores, or those who were to swing 
the capas (or colored scarfs), to attract the attention of the bull away 
from a fallen picador (or mounted spearman) ; there followed next the 
picadores mounted on poor old horses, destined to be killed ; next 
came the banderilleros, or the men who planted the barbed darts 
in the shoulders of the bulls to infuriate them. At the head of 



i8o 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 










THE ESPADA. 



this procession marched the espadas (or swordsmen), the principal 
actors in the bloody scene, and at the rear came the minor person- 
ages, who waited upon the others. All were gayly dressed, the pica- 
doves with embroidered jackets and silver-mounted saddles, and the 
espadas most resplendent in gold and silver embroidery. These last 
were well known ; each one carried himself with the air of a prince, 
and each one wore a little pug (or chignon) at the back of his head. 
The pictures will present all these peculiar features, and are almost 
self-explanatory, so we will not waste further time describing what is 
not necessary. 

They took their various positions, and then the gate was thrown 
open and in charged the first bull. He came in at a tremendous 
rate, but halted in the centre, pawed the ground a little, and then 
rushed directly upon the nearest horse, planted his horns in its 
breast, and next moment that poor beast was lying on the sand 
dying, the blood gushing out in a torrent. The picador was hardly 



SIGHTSEEING IN SEVILLE. 



181 



prepared for this quick onslaught, and was tumbled from his saddle 
and pinned by one leg to the ground, while the bull madly and 
repeatedly gored the dying horse. Several capeadores rushed to the 
rescue, flaunting their capas in the face of the bull and succeeded in 
diverting his attention to themselves while the bruised picador was 
extricated and led limping away beyond the barrier. The bull's blood 
was up, and he charged upon and tore up the sides of another poor 













PLAY OF THE CAPE. 



horse, which galloped half around the ring before it fell. Then another 
was served in the same way, and all was confusion ; the capeadores 
striving to aid the fallen spearmen, and look out for themselves at 
the same time, while the bull charged upon this person and that 
in succession. 

As for the spectators, they nearly went wild with enthusiasm, 
clapped their hands, pounded with their canes, and shouted, " Bravo 
toro ! " till they were hoarse. As though the bull were not mad 



1 82 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

enough, and had not proved himself brave enough already, he was 
to be further tormented by the banderillero, who took his stand in the 
ring and tempted the toro to charge. The bull charged him, and as 
he approached and lowered his horns, the man (or fiend) planted 
a barbed dart in either shoulder, and then dexterously leaped aside. 
Two other pairs were planted in the same manner, until the bull was 
furious, and bellowing from the pain. Then the other fighters all 
retired, and the arena was left to the bull. A trumpet was sounded, 
and into the arena leaped the swordsman, and gayly advanced to 
meet the bull, with his scarlet capa over his left shoulder, and a 
sharp sword extended in his right hand. The spectators held their 
breath as bull and man advanced to meet each other. The bull low- 
ered his horns to charge, and then out flashed that glittering sword, 
and toro lay dying on the sands. 

There ! That is a brief description of the bull-fight ; only it is 
much more barbarous, perhaps, than we have represented it. No bull 
ever leaves the ring alive ; he is driven in to be slain. Each bull is 
expected to kill two or three horses ; and it is this feature of the 
spectacle that is the most revolting, for the poor horses are stood up 
defenceless to be slaughtered, and they are not always immediately 
killed, but are most shockingly lacerated. Sometimes, if they survive 
a fight, they are taken out, their gaping wounds sewn up, and used 
again. Like the bulls, they must be eventually killed. Six or eight 
bulls and from fifteen to twenty horses are slain in the average bull- 
fight. Each scene with each bull is but a repetition of that described, 
with slight variations. Just as soon as the bull is killed, a team of 
gayly-decorated mules is driven in, the bull drawn out by his horns 
and the horses by their necks, the gates again closed, sand swept over 
the pools of gore, and another bull driven in to share the fate of his 
companions. The second bull was not so " game " as the first, and 
wounded but two horses ; the third was a large brindled bull, which 
wounded three ; the fourth was a coward, which was played with by 



SIGHT-SEEING IN SEVILLE. 1 85 

a lasso-thrower (after the Mexican style) ; the fifth was " tailed," — 
thrown to the ground by a sharp jerk of his tail ; the sixth killed 
one horse and wounded another, and the crowd clamoring for his 
death and the espada failing to kill him, the butcher was called in, 
who "stuck" him with a short sharp knife behind the horns; the 
seventh was very game, and would not die, though stuck by the 
swordsman three times, but fell at the hands of the butcher. Then 
the crowd called the espada a buzzard, and other opprobrious names, 
and hurled oranges at him instead of cigars, as at the successful ones. 
This bull was finally lassoed and killed, and the eighth and last was 
let in. He had his horns padded, so that he could not gore anybody, 
and a crowd of beggars were let loose, who tormented him to their 
hearts' content. When the " sport " ended, the sun had dropped 
behind the western hills, and everybody was weary. We were dis- 
gusted and ashamed, but had sat through it all, and our Historian 
had even taken with his camera a series of instantaneous pictures of 
the fight. 

" Well, boys," said the Judge, "we have now seen the famous 
national pastime of the Spaniards, that has amused them these hun- 
dreds of years. What do you think of it ? " 

And the reply was unanimous, that it was brutal, degrading, and 
revolting, and ought to be suppressed. 




CHAPTER X. 

CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 

EVILLE, the Queen of Andalusia, is situated upon the 
river Guadalquivir, which flows majestically down to 
the Atlantic, coming to the ocean north of Cadiz, the 
next city we visited. The voyage down the river 
was interesting, but we anxiously looked for Cadiz ; 
and at last out gleamed the city, white as a snow- 
drift, beautiful as a dream. We were not disappointed on landing, 
even though pounced upon and unmercifully robbed by the boatmen 
and porters ; for in the first place we had our minds filled with the 
vision of loveliness that greeted us as we entered the harbor, and 
were in a state of serenity that defied the assaults of those mer- 
cenary Spaniards ; and again, we had counted upon having no end 
of trouble in passing the customs, and reckoned anything short of 
robbery of all our goods as something to be expected. But the 
customs officials, who had it in their power to make it very uncom- 
fortable for us, were excessively attentive and polite. They merely 
glanced at the top trays of our trunks, peeped into our largest valises, 
and ordered them on. Then that precious luggage was seized by 
seven stalwart beggars, who wrenched and twisted it in seven dif- 
ferent ways at once, and then took it to the railroad station. Three 
of them carried the baggage, and four more went along to see them 
do it, and to claim payment for that superintendence. So glad were 
we to enter Cadiz at so little cost, that we paid them their price, much 



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CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 1 89 

to their astonishment, and evidently to their dissatisfaction. Then, 
bribing a railroad porter to keep watch over said luggage until we 
should be ready to depart, we entered the city and sought a hotel. 

Cadiz is charming and clean. So clean were the streets, so 
white the houses, so beautiful the glimpses of guarded courts and 
patios, so freshly green the blinds and jalousies, that we fell in love 
with it over again. We don't think we shall ever forget — at least 
we hope not — our walk along the alameda, fronting the open sea, 
nor the glorious sunset-clouds, nor the ramble along the battlements 
in the freshness of the following morning. Cadiz is a walled city, 
with sea-walls and vast fortifications, and one may walk more than 
a mile along the inner battlements, with views of the sea on one 
hand, and on the other fine old houses and narrow streets, — peep- 
ing through loop-holes and narrow slits in ornate sentry-boxes upon 
such bits of marine life as would keep an artist employed an entire 
season in depicting. And then, the air of antiquity over the gray 
walls, despite the fresh appearance of the city proper, despite the 
cleanliness ! 

The situation of Cadiz, commanding the entrance to a magnificent 
bay whose farther shores are rather dim, upon a neck of land close 
fortified and separated from the back country by a river and marshes, 
with unobstructed ocean navigation even to the eastern shores of the 
New World, early called attention to this Phoenician city as the great 
seaport of western and southern Spain. When, after the first voy- 
age of Columbus had opened the way to America, great preparations 
were made for his second voyage, Cadiz was selected as the port of 
embarkation, though the ships were fitted out in Seville. A glorious 
spectacle must those seventeen ships have presented as they as- 
sembled in the harbor with their freightage of rich stuff, and receiv- 
ing aboard the best of Spain's offerings in the way of proud hidalgos, 
soldiers, and caballeros, fresh from fighting the Moors, Andalusian 
steeds, armor, and armament. The ships of Columbus sailed proudly 



190 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

out, but the commander never so proudly sailed again ; only seven 
years later, in 1500, Columbus returned to this same port in chains. 
This, however, was at the end of his third voyage, in December, 
1500. From the recently- won city of Granada, Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella sent commands that the chains should be removed, and that 
the dishonored admiral should appear in their presence. To Cadiz 
also came the spoils of the second voyage, — the gold and the cap- 
tives, parrots, plants, and fruits, and the first Carib cannibals the 
Spaniards had taken. No coast city more important at that period 
than Cadiz; but it has fallen from its high place in the past four 
hundred years, and now struggles to support a population greater 
than its needs demand. This accounts for the fierce fights of the 
boatmen and porters over a stranger's luggage, and for the des- 
perate competition for his patronage ; the poor beggars have to 
right for a living or capitulate to starvation. 

Cadiz should certainly receive fame as a seaside resort for the 
winter and early spring, with its broad paseos and alamedas, its un- 
surpassed sea-views, its clean though narrow streets, its ancient 
architecture. The people here seem to appreciate its sea-views and 
paseos ; for on the roof (or azotea) of nearly every house is perched 
a little tower or belvedere ; and these little turrets break the outline 
of the city as seen from the sea, and give a character to its archi- 
tecture. Climb the winding stairway of the Torre Vijia to its roof- 
top, and then feast your eyes upon the views presented on every 
hand, — white seas of stone-walled houses, divided by narrow streets, 
with a thousand turrets dotting the surface. 

We cannot mention half the attractions of Cadiz (let the curious 
readers seek a guide-book), but the visitor should by all means as- 
cend to the Torre Vijia and look about him. We now recall how 
gloriously the sun went down that afternoon into the western sea, dart- 
ing his Parthian arrows at the marble citv from behind the barrier 
of a thunder-cloud with sombre buttresses and eolden battlements. 




THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 



CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 1 93 

As Sol (for that is his name here) sent his last sheaf of golden 
arrows at the tower, we pointed our camera at him and shot him on 
the spot. It is a great solace, that camera, as well as a great trouble. 
We have secured some fascinating pictures with it, and have made 
some most marvellous misses. The picture of Sol (if there be a 
picture) now rests in obscurity ; but we hope soon, with the applica- 
tion of proper chemicals, to bring his countenance to the light of 
his own beams. Speaking of pictures, there are many oil-paintings 
here in Cadiz, and enough Murillos to make the fortune of a small 
gallery in the United States, could it but possess them. The Museum 
has two or three of them, but the best are in the chapel of the ancient 
convent of Santa Catalina. 

The finest one there is perhaps the San Antonio ; but the one to 
which most interest is attached is the large painting behind the altar, 
which the artist was at work upon when he received a fall which 
eventually caused his death. While painting this picture he fell 
from the scaffolding and was so injured that he repaired at once to 
Seville, the place of his birth and scene of his greatest labors, where 
he died in 1682, at the age of sixty-four. This painting, then, was 
probably his last work. Left unfinished, it was completed by a pupil. 
From the wealthy merchants and monasteries of Cadiz, Murillo re- 
ceived orders for some of his best pictures ; but it is in Seville that 
we must look for the largest collection of his works in Andalusia. 
The Academy of Fine Arts in Cadiz issues an excellent catalogue, 
which makes up for the deficiencies of works of art by detailed de- 
scription. The Academy contains a great many paintings well worth 
the student's attention. 

Wishing to photograph this last work of Murillo, we received 
permission from the capellan of the convent to do so, although it 
was on a feast-day, and the little chapel was well filled with worship- 
pers. We will confess to some misgivings as to the correctness of 
our proceedings, — photographing a picture in the retable mayor before 



194 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

which silent figures draped in black were kneeling in adoration. But 
they paid less attention to us than we to them, and took it as a matter 
of course, sanctioned as it was by the capellah, who accompanied 
us and the sacristan, who opened wide the great, creaking doors that 
more light might enter. 

We had heard much of the fanaticism and jealous scrutiny of 
strangers to be encountered in Spain ; but after three months in the 
land we can say we have yet to meet them. All have received us 
as did the gentle and courteous chaplain of the convent; and what- 
ever the religiosos may have been in times past, they are now to all 
outward appearances tolerant and even liberal. 

Leaving Cadiz one morning, wje set out, on a roundabout journey, 
for Malaga, by the way of Tangiers in Morocco, and Gibraltar/ A 
little steamer makes the voyage twice a week between Cadiz and 
Tangiers in about ten hours. We are not going to describe Tangiers, 
nor any part of Africa which we afterward visited (though we ex- 
plored Algiers as well, and went down into the interior, toward the 
great desert of Sahara), for that story belongs to our adventures in 
North Africa. One famous point we passed, midway between Cadiz 
and Tangiers, where all our English passengers took off their hats 
and allowed their usually impassive countenances to glow with exulta- 
tion. For this point was Trafalgar, where, in 1805, Lord Nelson 
gained the victory and lost his life, after twice crossing the ocean to 
meet the combined French and Spanish fleets. Finally, the point 
of Tarifa, with its white tower blazing against great drifts of yellow 
sand, again flamed out to us a welcome to Spain. But the channel 
was very rough, the cross winds from the Atlantic and the Mediter- 
ranean rolling up a very disagreeable sea. About three hours of this 
roucrh sailing brought us into smoother waters, and we could then 
enjoy the coast views rapidly unrolled as we steamed along. 

To that land of mysteries, whence came the wild invaders of 
Spain a thousand years ago, — to sun-scorched Africa, our steamers 



CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 



J 95 



prow was turned, and in a few hours we anchored in the open road- 
stead of Tangiers. Now, it is far from our purpose to describe 
Tangiers, or our stay there, for reasons already given. Suffice it ; 
Tangiers completed our pictures of the Arabs domiciled in the north 




TRAFALGAR BAY 



of Africa, and with our mental vision dwelling upon scenes Oriental 
and architecture of the time of the Moorish invasion, we turned our 
steps toward the desired land of the Spaniards again. Six hours' 
steaming brought us over to Gibraltar. Glorious rock of Gibraltar, 
— most magnificent of any part of the coast scenery of either Spain 



196 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

or northern Africa ! The great rock rose before us, as we glided 
into its cool shadows, with long serrated crest, green and gray, with 
pink and yellow houses nestling at its base, with heavy cloud-masses 
hanging over Spain beyond, and with a glimpse of the silver Sierra 
Nevadas. 

We had two hours on shore, and those two hours were well 
improved, ransacking the town for views and curios, and peering into 
all out-of-the-way corners. No, we did n't have time to climb the 
rock, nor did we see any monkeys, save such as we had brought 
with us of the species that walked erect on two legs, and rejoiced in 
the name of man. Before we sailed away from Gibraltar we could 
not fail to note its grand and beautiful harbor, where all the ships 
of the world might come to anchor, between the rock and the 
opposite low-lying coast of Spain. 

The pleasantly-situated Spanish towns San Roque and Algeciras 
threw out their white walls, — one against a broad green plain, and the 
other against the skv. Cool and comfortable lav the town at the base 
of the rock, until about nine o'clock ; then the sun had climbed above 
its crest, and changed the climate of the pleasant town from temperate 
to torrid. Above the white houses of the modern town of " Gib " 
rises the ruined tower of the Moors, and this gray fortress carries us 
back to a period more remote than that of the acquisition of Gibraltar 
by the English; for these only came into possession in 1704, and the 
town dates from away back in the dark ages. When the Goths had 
possession of Spain, they also held in Africa the important posts of 
Ceuta, Tangiers, and Arsilla. Ceuta, the Spaniards hold to-day. These 
garrisoned places held back the Mohammedan sea of migration for 
more than a century; but finally, through the defection of a Gothic 
chieftain, the first waves of the Arab conquest lapped against the 
Rock of Gibraltar. A reconnoitring force under Tarif (from whom 
was named the town of Tarifa, which we can see from Gibraltar 
shining on the other shore) felt its way cautiously along the coast 



CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 1 99 

of Spain, — five hundred Africans and Arabs. They came back to 
Africa and reported to their commander, and then was sent over 
Tarah, who gave the name to Gibraltar — Gibel-al-tarik — the Rock 
of Tarah. He landed with five thousand soldiers, and, making Gib- 
raltar his base of operations, effected finally the conquest of the 
greater portion of Spain. 

Farther back still in the history of the world's peoples "old Gib" 
takes the speculative student of history, even to that remote time, when 
the Atlantic was unknown to the dwellers along the Mediterranean 
shores, and this great rock formed, with the opposing promontory of 
Ceuta, the far-famed Pillars of Hercules. Have not these pillars been 
stamped upon the coins of Spain since times remote, and are they not 
stamped there to-day ? You may still find them, one on either side 
the arms and royal crown of Spain, but the motto encircling them 
is not the same as it was in olden times. Columbus changed it for 
the Spaniards ; until some four hundred years ago it was Ne plus 
ultra. The ancients regarded the Pillars of Hercules as the farthest 
bounds of their world, at least, of Spain. It was Charles V., we think, 
who adopted the modern motto, Plus ultra, in place of the antiquated 
one. 

Americans may take an interest in these Pillars of Hercules from 
the fact that they constitute the standards of our dollar-mark, thus: $. 
If we go back far enough, step by step, we shall come to the time 
when Atlantis was believed in, and when the Greeks gave credence 
to the story related to Solon by the wise Egyptian priests of the 
existence in mid-ocean of a terrestrial paradise. 

Eight hours more of steaming took us to Malaga. Another night 
of sailing over waters tolerably smooth, and we awoke in sight 
of land. Before us, in the cool shadows of hills, beyond which the 
sun had not yet risen, lay Malaga, city of raisins and wines. The 
hills were dimpled and uneven, mainly bare of trees, apparently not 
much cultivated, yet numerously dotted with the white walls of farm 



200 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

and country houses. And thus we came around to Spain again after 
preliminary voyaging, having flanked it on its western side, and 
marched upon it from the land of its ancient enemies the Moors. 

Though we had come thus unexpectedly upon the country, the in- 
habitants, such of them (and there were many) as came to meet us, 
were not at all confounded. As soon as our anchor had dropped, 
a gunshot from the lighthouse on the mole, the sea was swarm- 
ing with boats of every description, containing ravenous boatmen 
anxious to carry us to the shore. Their hungry looks, their violent 
demonstrations, augured ill for the character of the people they 
represented. All looked half-starved, poverty-stricken, driven by 
wretchedness to the verge of desperation. Nor did their looks belie 
their character ; for a more wretched lot of vagabonds than those who 
swarm the streets of Malaga would be difficult to find. 

There are few things here deserving the attention of a stranger ; 
certainly there is nothing in Malaga worth a special journey to see. 
And it is one of the dirtiest cities we saw. The streets of the city 
are in bad condition, the plazas are neglected, and the roads lead- 
ing into the country are horrible to experience. There is a grand 
cathedral here, containing beautiful windows, and organs famous for 
their carvings. Malaga's interest centres in its past, and pertains 
to the people from whom the city was wrested four hundred years 
ago. To us, indeed, the Spain of the past, of the long ago, is far 
more interesting than that of to-day ; for we see now merely the 
decaying remnants of a once powerful nation dwelling in the habita- 
tions from which their ancestors drove a people in man)/ respects 
superior to themselves. Spain, like that odd crustacean the hermit- 
crab, dwells in the abandoned shell of another. 

But as to the history of Malaga; at one point, at least, it impinges 
upon that of the Christian world. Time was when Malaga was a 
flourishing place, the principal seaport of the province Granada, the 
sea in front active with the commerce of the Moors, and the hills and 



CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 



20I 



slopes behind covered with vineyards and gardens. Long before 
this period it was a port of call of the Phoenicians, and is said to 
have its name from Malak (place of salt). Its beautiful bay, large and 



|P»1 

pfcp§ 

*r£t, " i' I*- '* it *JL 











SKETCH IN GIBRALTAR. 



accessible, the tributary river, and the plains beyond the hills could 
not but have attracted the sails of voyagers from earliest times. 

At the conquest of Spain by the Moors it became a city of 
importance, like Cartagena and Almeria ; for right across the sea, not 



202 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

far distant, lay Africa, the home of the Arab conquerors. To the 
cities, towns, and fortified places of the mountains beyond it, which 
send their spurs right down to the coast, Malaga was necessary, as 
offering communication with Africa, through which came supplies and 
troops. This was what hastened the downfall of Malaga ; for the 
King of Spain, Ferdinand, in his operations preliminary to his first 
sieges of Granada and the Alhambra, deemed it necessary to cut off 
all communication with Africa by capturing the ports of the Mediter- 
ranean. And so in 1487 Ferdinand the Catholic assembled his 
forces for the investment of Malaga. With a large and well-appointed 
army he penetrated the rugged Sierras that guard the seaports on the 
landward side, the gloomy Alpuxarras. 

Ferdinand did not directly assault the city of Malaga itself, but 
first attacked and captured Velez Malaga, a town some two or three 
leagues down the coast, whose white dwellings we could see as we 
entered the bay. He was combated vainly by the old Moorish king, 
El Zagal, who came thundering through the mountains from Granada 
with a chosen troop. The Spaniards took the town and its crag-built 
fortress, giving the wretched inhabitants leave to make shift as they 
pleased, but taking away their homes. Then, when the flower of 
Andalusian soldiery had gathered about his banner, when the coast 
was white with the sails of assembling sailors anxious to share in the 
spoils of a great city, Ferdinand marched upon Malaga. He closely 
invested the city, by land and sea. But it was rich and well-stored, 
with all the necessities and luxuries of life. Its walls were of great 
strength, washed by the sea on one side, by a river on another, and 
climbing the hills behind the town. The river-gate was defended 
by two towers of strength ; at the opposite and upper end of the 
town, as it ran up the slopes of the eastern hill, was the vast citadel, 
capable of holding thousands, known as the Alkazaba. Immediately 
above the citadel was the impregnable fortress of Gibralfaro, anciently 
a lighthouse, as its name indicates, — Gibel-faro (hill of the light-tower). 




< 
< 



ilii.l 



CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA. 205 

This was connected with the Alkazaba by a zigzag staircase, covered 
and protected by thick walls ; but as it crowned the apex of a steep 
hill it dominated both citadel and city. 

The alcaydes of the city and citadel were empowered by the citizens 
to make an honorable capitulation, and had they succeeded, doubtless 
the fate of Malaga would have been less terrible. But the dominating 
fortress of the Gibralfaro was held by a fierce African Moor of the 
implacable tribe of Zegri, who never gave or expected quarter, and 
hated the Christians with a hatred only to be quenched in blood. 
Hamet el Zegri, as he was called, commanded a band of wild African 
warriors, equally fierce as himself. Their chieftain had not long 
since lost his mountain stronghold of Ronda to the Spaniards, and 
he was now determined to defend Malaga to the last. While the 
alcayde of the city was trying to make terms with Ferdinand, El Zegri 
descended to the Alkazaba, put its commander to death, and threat- 
ened the lives of all who should even whisper of capitulation to the 
Spaniards. 

Then began the siege, and one of the most heroic defences men- 
tioned in history. Heavy ordnance, mounted on the surrounding 
hills, and the batteries of the ships in the harbor, played incessantly 
upon the walls of citadel and fortress night and day, but without 
avail. Whenever a breach was made, the Moors erected another 
wall behind it, and repelled every assault with great carnage. 

El Zegri and his Africans fought like demons ; they made des- 
perate sallies through the breaches opened by the enemy's cannon, 
and only relinquished their efforts when stark famine had worn them 
into weak submission. Not only El Zegri, but a famous Moorish 
Santo7i (or holy man), led them to savage slaughter, but in vain. At 
last El Zegri had recourse to the arts of the astrologer, and for days 
remained shut up in his loftiest tower, in consultation with a famous 
necromancer, who promised, when the right time should come, to lead 
the warriors forth to victory. The day did come ; but the fierce 



206 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

onslaught was repelled, the sacred banner captured, the necromancer 
slain, and the best portion of El Zegri's soldiers bit the dust. 

Famine completed what cannon and the sword began, and finally 
the city capitulated without terms, save that the inhabitants, such 
as could, should be allowed to ransom themselves from impending 
slavery. It came about, however, through the craftiness of Ferdi- 
nand, that hardly a score of the inhabitants escaped being sold as 
slaves. They were induced to give up all their gold and jewels 
in part payment for their ransom, with the promise that they should 
have freedom when the balance was made up by their friends. But 
it was never done. Ferdinand kept their treasures, and treacherously 
sold them all as slaves. A hundred of the best fighters were sent as a 
present to the Pope, Innocent VIII., and a hundred Moorish maidens 
were divided between the royal families of Spain and Portugal. Fif- 
teen thousand Moors, men, women, and children, were thus sold into 
slavery by the "most Christian' king and the "gentle Isabella." 
The brave Hamet el Zegri died in a dungeon ; and thus the Spanish 
king got control of the southern coast of Spain. 

To-day we may yet see the gray old Gibralfaro, still occupied by 
the soldiers of Spain ; but it looks out upon a city far from prosper- 
ous, — upon hillsides once crowned with hanging gardens, now but 
scantily cultivated. We found the old citadel, the Alkazaba. occupied 
by hundreds of families, numerous as crows, and nearly all as fam- 
ished. In its ruins they had walled off for themselves little dens and 
rookeries, and here dwelt, looking out upon magnificent prospects 
over sea and land, but with filth and squalor all around. We climbed 
the steep hill beyond the citadel to the very gate of the grim castle; 
but the only soldier on guard would n't let us in, and we had to 
content ourselves with rambling around the walls. They rise steep 
on every side, surrounded by deep ditches where the steepness 
of the hill did not preclude their necessity. A little way to the 
•eastward is another mount, captured and held by the Marquis of 



CADIZ, GIBRALTAR, AND MALAGA, 



207 



Cadiz, Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, around which the stormy battle 

fiercely raged. 

Above the battlements rises a tower, which must be the same in 
which El Zegri held his mysterious consultation with the astrologer; 




A SKETCH IN MALAGA. 



and the covered way connecting castle and citadel (though no longer 
covered) may still be traced up the winding crest of the hill. The 
only other relic of the Moor that is prominent is a great arch erected 
at the entrance to the market-place. Our only chance companion 
on the hill, as we surveyed the fort, was a boy, who lay flat upon the 



208 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

ground all the while. Upon coming up to him we found that he was 
engaged in trapping birds; he had half a dozen cages arranged around 
a bare spot on the hillside, and strings leading from them and the 
snare he had spread, so that by pulling them he could cause the birds 
inside to flutter, and when strange birds had settled on his trap, he 
could also pull other strings and net them. Leaving our young bird- 
catcher to his pastime, we meandered back to the city and engaged 
seats in the train for Granada. 




CHAPTER XI. 

ABOUT PALOS, COLUMBUS, AND TARSHISH. 

T Malaga we took a " new departure," inasmuch as we 
resolved to see more of the people and of social life 
than we had hitherto seen. 

" We have now been together several weeks," said 
the Judge, " and so far as any intimate acquaintance 
with you goes, I am still a stranger to you and you are strangers to 
me. Now," continued he, beaming upon us with a friendly smile, 
" we must proceed to get better acquainted." 

Both Professor and Historian assented heartily to this proposi- 
tion. The fact is, we had been so very busy filling our time with 
sight-seeing, that we had (as the Judge said) passed very little time 
together. In our anxiety also to see the historic cities and cathe- 
drals, palaces and monuments, the Spaniards themselves, the dwellers 
among these attractions, had been almost entirely neglected. As we 
took train for Granada, and had left behind us the ancient but 
muddy Malaga, we settled ourselves down to compare notes of our 
various journeys. 

" I must confess," said our Historian, " that I did want to make 
one journey which we have omitted, and that was to Palos, whence 
Columbus first set sail for America, in 1492." 

" Yes," assented the Judge, " that is a natural desire for an Ameri- 
can, especially as the year (1892) draws nigh in which we are to 
celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the alleged discovery 

14 



2IO 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 



) !■ f. f i*- 

• I I 

1 J I 

7 a 



17 M^ ?'*•'• ' \ 



of our land. Perhaps we may yet accomplish it, and go over ground 
I myself have visited." 

" You ! You have been there ? " chimed in chorus the Professor 
and Historian. 

11 Yes indeed, and not 
many years ago." 

"And is it still 
there, — the port, the 
Church of St. George, 
in which Columbus read 
the proclamation to the 
people, and the old con- 
vent ? Tell us about it, 
please." 

"Well, I will; though 
the scenery ahead of us 
is of the finest in Spain, 
and you must n't allow 
my story to divert your 
attention from these glo- 
rious mountains." 

The Alpuxarras, the 
snow-covered peaks of 
Andalusia, were right 
before us, and the sun 
shining brightly upon 
their burnished shields. 
We promised, and the 
Judge proceeded: — 
" At Seville, as you 
know, we saw many memorials of Columbus, and of those early voy- 
ages by famous Spaniards. After the second voyage of Columbus, 




STREET MUSICIANS. 




COLUMBUS. 



ABOUT PA LOS, COLUMBUS, AND TARSHISH. 213 

in 1493, that city was the great fitting-out station for the fleets. 
From Seville, one day in April, I took train for a little station on 
the railroad called Huelva; but I was told by a fellow-passenger that 
I must go by the way of Moguer if I would visit the very route of 
Columbus as he himself went to Palos. So I sought it out, — a little 
sleepy town with a great church and an old convent. This con- 
vent, by the way, or the chapel attached to it, was the one to which 
Columbus and his sailors went to say their prayers after their return 
from America, in the fulfilment of a vow they had made at sea dur- 
ing a terrible storm. Here I saw, too, the ancestral dwelling of the 
Pinzons, those gallant captains who w r ent with Columbus, and but 
for whom, doubtless, he would never have been able to get ships and 
sailors for his great expedition. Their descendants still reside there, 
though much to my regret I learned that the family was away ; for 
I very much desired to grasp the hand of a Pinzon. No direct de- 
scendant of Columbus is now alive ; but in my opinion the Pinzons 
were of better stock than the Great Admiral himself. My host at 
the little hotel furnished me with a boy and a donkey early next 
morning, and I set off for Palos, over an excellent road, all the way 
through carefully cultivated vineyards, and soon arrived there. The 
little village is a very wretched one, and is nearly half a mile from 
the Rio Tinto, the river in which Columbus gathered together his 
caravels for his voyage. But the Church of St. George is there 
yet, in good preservation ; and I saw the veritable pulpit from which 
was read the royal proclamation commanding the people of Palos 
to furnish men and caravels for the mysterious voyage ; likewise 
the great wooden image of Saint George and the dragon, which 
was there in the time of Columbus, if we may believe the local 
traditions. 

" But nobody knew anything about either Columbus or his times, 
not even the cura (or parish priest), and so I pushed on three miles 
farther, to the convent. This is known as La Rabida, and stands on 



2I 4 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



a high hill overlooking the Rio Tinto, and with a distant view of the 
sea. I approached the gateway and was welcomed by the conserge 
(or man in charge) at the very portal where Columbus had called for 
a drink of water for his child nearly four hundred years ago. 

"The building is still 
in good preservation, and 
probably as Columbus 
saw it, with many empty 
cloisters, where the 
monks then resided, a 
fine- garden-patio in its 
centre, and a mirador 
(or balcony) with fine 
views of the coast. The 
old conserge was so pleas- 
ant and hospitable that I 
asked permission to stay 
overnight ; and this be- 
ing granted, I sent back 
my donkey and donkey- 
boy, and took possession. 
My friends were very 
poor, but kind and cheer- 
f ul. I f u rnished the 
money, and they sent to 
Palos for some goat-meat 
and eggs. They gave 
me their best bed in one 
of the cloisters, and I 
passed altogether one of the pleasantest periods of my life. 

" The chapel is still shown here of the good old prior of the con- 
vent, Padre Marchena, and the very room in which was held the famous 




PEASANT. 



ABOUT PALOS, COLUMBUS, AND TARSHISH. 



215 



consultation between him and Columbus and the learned doctor, 
which resulted in the prior's setting off on his mule to lay the case 
before Isabella. The result all the world knows now, — that Isabella 
was persuaded to promise assistance to Columbus, who went to her 
court, then held at Santa Fe, in the vega of Granada, and that the 
final result was the discovery of America. So you see these four 
places — Seville, Palos, 
La Rabida, and Gra- 
nada, for which we are 
now destined — are 
joined in their connec- 
tion with the history of 
America." 

When the Judge 
had ceased speaking, a 
bright - eyed Spaniard 
who had occupied the 
opposite seat of our 
compartment ad- 
dressed him in very 
good English, and 
asked if he had visited 
the great copper-mines 
of Huelva, on the op- 
posite shore of the bay 
below Palos. The 
Judge said he had; and the Spaniard continued: "Those mines are 
said to have been worked by the Phoenicians two thousand years ago, 
and that coast is supposed to be the ancient Tarshish of the Bible. 
But, senores, though there is copper in these mountains all about us, 
there is that which is more precious still, —silver, and also o;old. Yes, 
indeed, hay platay oro en abitndancii (gold and silver in abundance") " 




QUEEX ISABELLA. 



2l6 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



Being encouraged by us, our new friend went on to relate stories 
of these hills that we eagerly made a note of as he rolled them out in 
the English he had acquired in America. " But, senores, most of my 




COLUMBUS PUT IN IRONS. 



life has been passed in Mexico, where I have been mining for many 
years. There you will find gold and silver, — if you but know where 
to look for it, — and quicksilver, and emeralds, rubies sometimes, 
and opals. Did your worships ever hear of the veta negra, the great 
black vein of silver that was worked for so many years, and then so 
suddenly disappeared ? No ? Then perhaps you would like me to 



ABOUT PALOS, COLUMBUS, AND TARSHISH. 2 I 7 

tell it to you, — the story of its disappearance, as I learned it from 
an old gambusino (a poor miner) many years ago. Perhaps it may 
have been told in books before this ; but I think not, as I myself 
do not recollect having told it to any English or Americans. This 
is it, if you will condescend to listen, — this is the story of this won- 
derful vein and its mysterious ending some fifty years ago : — 



THE MINE-KING: A STORY OF MEXICO. 

Ojala por los dias de oro ! — oh for the days of gold ! sighed the old gam- 
busino ; pero ya se acabo todo eso, — but that is all over now ; ni oro, ni plata hay, 
— neither gold nor silver is to be had nowadays for picking or digging. Pe- 
dazitos, 7io mas — little bits one grubs up here and there ; pero se acabo la veta 
negra, — but the black vein, the black vein ; onde estd ? — where is it? Worked 
out, long ago. 

I was no older than your worship, in those days, and my back was strong : 
Vdlgame madre santissima ! but I could pack the ore nimbly in the mine and 
up the shaft. Ay, and then all worked with a will, for it was all bonanza ; day 
after day, month after month, year after year, there we were, at the same old 
vein ; and the more we cut into it, the richer it grew. Ay que plata ! Oh, 
what silver came out of that old vein ! bianco, rico, pesado, — white, rich, 
and heavy, it was, — all silver, all silver. Five hundred pesos fncrtes I made 
in one week. Que hermosita aquella veta negra ! — what a beautiful little vein 
was that black one ! 

But your worship yawns, and my poor old head turns round when it thinks 
of that time. Pucs senor. All the miners (for there 'were no gambnsinos 
then) were making dollars as fast as they could ; but the more they got the 
more they wanted, although not one of the laziest but had more than he ever 
before had dreamed of possessing. However, they were not satisfied, and all 
complained because they did not strike a richer vein than the old veta negra, — 
as if that were possible ! 

The most dissatisfied of all the miners was a little deformed man called 
Pepito, who did nothing but swear at and curse his bad luck, although he had 
made enough money to last three of his lives ; and the miserly style in which 
he lived was the by-word of everybody. However, whether it was from a bitter- 
ness of spirit caused by his deformity, or from genuine badness of heart, Pepito 



2l8 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

was continually grumbling at the old vein, calling it by every opprobrious 
epithet which he could summon to the end of his tongue, and which was 
enough to break the heart of any vein, even of iron. 

One night — it was the fiesta of San Lorenzo — all the miners were away 
in the town, for they had agreed to give themselves a holiday ; but Pepito took 
his basket and pick, and declared his intention of remaining to work; "for," 
said he, " what time have I for holiday, when with all my work, work, work, I 
only get enough out of that stony old vein to keep me in frijolitos, without a 
taste oi pulque since — quien sabe ? — how long ago ? Maldita sea la veta, digo 
yo, — curse such a vein, say I ! Vdlgame Dios ! — this to the black vein, the 
black vein of Sombrerete ! " apostrophized the old gambusino. 

Now your worship knows, of course (but quien sabe? for foreigners are 
great fools), that every mine has its metal king, its mina padre, to whom all 
the ore belongs. He is, your worship knows, not a man, nor a woman, but a 
spirit, and a very good one, if he is not crossed or annoyed ; and when the 
miners curse or quarrel at their work, he often cuts off the vein, or changes it 
to heavy lead or iron ; but when they work well and hard, and bring him a good 
stock of cigarros, or leave him in the gallery when they quit the mine a little 
bottle oi pulque or mescal, then he often sends bonanzas, and plenty of rich ore. 

Well, everybody said when they heard Pepito's determination to remain 
alone in the mine, and after he had so foully abused the celebrated veta negra y 
" Vdlgame ! if Pepito does n't get a visit from padre mina to-night, it 's because 
he has borrowed holy water or a rosarioncito from Father Jose, the cura from 
Sombrerete." 

We were all going to work again at midnight, but the mescal was so good 
that none stirred from the pulqueria until long after that hour. I, however, 
shouldered my pick and trudged up the hill to the shaft, first waking up the 
watchman, who lay snoring at the gate of the hacienda, wrapped in his serape. 
I took him with me to the mouth of the shaft, that he might lower me down in 
the basket ; and down I went. When I got to the bottom I called to Pepito, — 
for, knowing he was working there, I had not brought a lantern, — but heard 
nothing save the echo of my own voice sounding hollow and loud as it vibrated 
through the passages and galleries of the mine. Thinking he might be asleep, 
I groped my way to where we had been working the great lode in the morning, 
hoping to find him in that direction, and hallooing as I crept, but still no answer; 
and when I shouted, " Pepito, Pepito, onde cstd ? — where are you?" the echo 
cried jeeringly, " Onde cstd ?" 

At length I began to get frightened. Mines, everybody knows, are full of 
devils and gnomes, and bad spirits of every kind ; and here was I, at midnight, 



ABOUT PALOS, COLUMBUS, AND TARSHISH. 



219 



alone, and touching the " black vein " which had been so abused. I did not 

like to call again to Pepito, for the echo frightened me, and I felt assured that 

the answer was made by some unearthly voice, and came direct from the lode 

of the veta negra that we were working. I crept back to the bottom of the 

shaft, and looking up to the top, where the sky showed no bigger than a tortilla> 

with one bright star looking straight down, I shouted to the watchman to lower 

the basket and draw me up ; 

but, holy mother ! my voice 

seemed to knock itself to pieces 

on the sides of the shaft as it 

struggled up, and when it 

reached the top must have been 

a whisper. I sat down and 

fairly cried, when a loud shout 

of laughter rattled along the 

galleries, and broke as it were 

up the shaft ; I trembled like 

quicksilver, and heavy beads of 

perspiration dropped from my 

forehead to the ground. There 

was another shout of laughter, 

and a voice cried out, " Come 

here, Matthias; come here." 

" Where, most wonderful 
sefior? " I asked, thinking it well 
to be respectful. 

" Here, here to the black 
vein, — the old leaden, useless 
vein," cried the voice, mock- 
ingly ; and I thought with hor- 
ror of the abuse it had that day 
received. 

Half dead with fear, I crept 
along the gallery, and turning 
an abrupt angle, came upon the 
lode we had been working. Ave 
Maria purissima ! what a sight 

met my eyes ! The gallery seemed a mass of fire, yet there was no blaze and 
no heat. The rock which contained the vein of ore, and the ore itself, were 




220 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



like solid fire ; and yet it was n't fire, for there was no heat, as I said, but a glare 
so bright that one could see away into the rock, which seemed to extend miles and 
miles, and every grain of quartz, and even the smallest particle of sand, of which 
it was composed, was blazing with light, and shone separately, like a million 
diamonds knocked in one ; and yet the eye saw miles into the bowels of the 

earth, and every grain of sand 
was thus lighted up. But if the 
stone and the grit and the sand 
were thus fiery bright, and the 
eye was scorched to look upon 
it, what words can describe the 
glitter of the vein, now of spark- 
ling silver, and white as it were 
with flame, but over which a 
black blush now and then shot, 
and instanta neously disap- 
peared ? It wanted not this, how- 
ever, to tell me that I was looking 
at the endless vcta negra, the 
scorned, abused black vein, 
which throbbed, miles and miles 
away into the earth, with virgin 
silver enough to supply the 
world for worlds to come. 

" Ha, ha, ha ! " roared the 
voice; " the old leaden, useless 
vein ! Where is the man that 
can eat all this silver's worth 
of fi'ijolitos ? Bring him here! 
bring him here ! " And forth- 
with a thousand little sparkling 
figures jumped out of the scin- 
tillating rock, and springing to 
the ground, ringing like new-coined pesos, they seized upon the body of Pepito, 
which I had not till now observed, who lay, blue with fear, in a corner of the 
gallery, and lifting him on their shoulders, brought him in front of the silver 
vein. The brightness of the metal scorched his eyes, which still could not, even 
in his fear, resist feasting on the richness of the glittering lode. 

"Bonanza, una bonanza!" shouted the enraptured miner, forgetting his 




ON MULEBACK. 



ABOUT PA LOS, COLUMBUS, AND TARSHISH. 221 

situation and the presence he was in ; for the figure (if figure it can be called 
which was like a mist of silver fire) of the padre mina (the mine-king) was now 
seen sitting in state on the top of the vein. 

"Bonanza!" shouted the same voice derisively; "bonanza from an old 
leaden, useless vein ! " repeating the terms which Pepito had used in abusing 
it. " Where 's the man can eat this silver's worth of frijolitos ? What does he 
deserve who has thus slighted the silver king? Turn him to lead, lead, lead ! " 
answered the voice. " Away with him, then." 

The thousand sparkling silverines seized the struggling miner. " Not lead,, 
not lead," he shouted; "anything but lead! " But they held him fast by the 
legs, and bore him opposite the lode. The rock sparkled up into a thousand 
times more brilliant coruscation than before, and for an instant I thought my 
eyes would have burned with looking at the silver vein, so heavenly bright it 
shone. An instant after a void remained in the rock, — a horrid black void. 
The vein had disappeared, but the rock itself was still as bright as ever, — all 
but the black opening which yawned from out the brightness ; and opposite this 
stood the thousand silverines, bearing the body of the luckless gambnsino. 

" Uno ! dos ! tres!" shouted the mine-king; and at the word " tres" with 
a hop, skip, and jump, right into the gaping hollow spring the thousand silver- 
ines, with the luckless miner on their shoulders, whose body, the instant that 
his heels disappeared into the opening, with these very eyes I saw turned 
to lead. 

Santa Maria ! then all became dark, and I fell senseless to the ground. 
When I recovered a little, I thought to myself, Now will come my turn ; but 
hoping to conciliate the angry mine-king, I sought in the breast of my shirt for 
a bottle of mezcal, which I remembered I had brought with me. There was 
the bottle, but without a single drop of liquor. This puzzled me ; but when I 
called to mind the fiery spectacle I had just witnessed, I felt no doubt that the 
liquor had been dried up in the bottle by the great heat. 

However, I was not molested, and in a short time the miners returned to 
the work, and finding me pale and trembling, called me tonto, borracho, — drunk 
and mad, We proceeded to the lode and grubbed away, but all we suc- 
ceeded in picking out were a few lumps of poor lead ore ; and from that day 
not a dollar's worth of silver was ever drawn from the famous black vein of 
Sombrerete. 

Our Spanish companion was so very agreeable, and had such a 
fund of amusing stories about the country, as well as a store of his- 



222 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 

toric information, that we were much pleased to learn that he was 
going through with us to Granada. He handed us his card in 
exchange for our own " pasteboards," and we read, " Tomas Merino y 
Borrer," — " a servicio de tistedes, caballeros" he added, with a graceful 
bow, — "at your service, gentlemen." Generally speaking, this is an 
empty compliment; but we found that Don Tomas meant all he said. 
Having been in America, he had a great liking for Americanos. 
The Judge, especially, he doubly liked, since they could converse 
together in Spanish, which was much more agreeable to him than 
the English. He indicated to us the picturesque and historic features 
of the country, as we passed, advising us to go to Ronda, the most 
picturesque town in Spain. But Ronda was nearly two days' dili- 
gence from the railroad, and we had no time. There was one place 
we should have liked to visit, and that was Zahara, which has a 
history most fascinating. It was the unfortunate town captured by 
the Moorish king four hundred years ago, which was the cause of 
the Moors being expelled from Spain. So barbarous was the treat- 
ment he gave the people of Zahara, that ever since that the Spaniards 
have been greatly incensed. The brave Marquis of Cadiz, finding 
that the truce was broken between the Moorish and the Spanish 
kings, attacked and captured Alhama, and held it, despite the efforts 
of the Moors to regain it; and this was the immediate cause of the 
downfall of Granada itself. So our time was beguiled until the train 
rolled into the station of Boabdilla, and we alighted for lunch, and to 
change cars for the direct line to Granada. 




CHAPTER XII. 

ON THE WAY TO GRANADA. 

E came out of the station at Boabdilla just in time 
to see our Spanish friend fall into the arms of 
another native of the land, and kiss him on both 
cheeks. Then after hugging him, and being hugged 
in return, he dragged him up to us and introduced 
him as a most illustrious descendant of a noble house, with whom 
he had lived and travelled in Mexico. His name was Angel Fadrique 
Gonzalez, with a Serior and Don prefixed, and as many titles affixed 
as you can string across this page. But he was a jolly, large-hearted 
gentleman, just the same, though he could n't speak English. He, 
too, was going to Granada ; so our party, now five in number, se- 
cured a compartment to itself, and we passed the time in telling 
stories and recalling the history of the places through which we 
passed. 

The first town of importance we came to was Antequara, a city 
so ancient that it was founded on Roman ruins, and which lies near 
a great cave guarding prehistoric remains. It has a castle and a 
mosque, and near it is a great rock called el Pchonde los Enamorados 
(or the Lovers' Leap). According to a tradition, a Spanish captive 
escaped from the Moors, and with him a Moorish maiden who had 
fallen in love with him, were driven up this great rock by a party of 
pursuing Moors. Seeing no trace of mercy in the faces of the infu- 



224 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

riate pursuers, they leaped to death, from the summit of the rock, 
clasped in each other's arms. 

Our companions were fuller of Mexico than of Spain, and related 
many narratives of adventure there. Don Angel gave us one, in 
Spanish, which his friend translated for us, and the Historian tran- 
scribed. Perhaps the language of the noble Don may seem a little 
florid ; but that may be the fault of the translator, or of our plain and 
every-day English. Here it follows; and Don Angel called it — 

THE STORY OF A SHEPHERD-BOY. 

LEAPING at once from his hiding-place beneath the waters of the Atlantic, 
the morning sun first bathed his face in a rosy cloud hanging on the horizon 
ready to receive him, then peered above its upper rim and darted at the world 
his brightest beams. The first of land objects struck by his fiery darts was 
Orizaba, the snow-mountain, whose silver helmet was soon suffused with 
crimson, that spread down upon his shoulders with fainter glow, touching the 
lava fields and flooding his forest-covered breast with molten gold. Higher 
and higher rose the sun, and deeper and deeper sank his golden shafts into 
the dim recesses of the forest. 

The silent wilderness, feeling its gloom dispelled, bestirred itself to greet 
the coming of the day. In the topmost boughs of the trees its song-birds 
sat; thence they sent forth their joyful notes, warning the dwellers below — the 
parrots, monkeys, troupials — that their dusky sanctums were soon to be invaded. 
They, too, swelled the chorus with their cries, and ere long all Nature was 
awake. The last to receive the message of the morning was the great canon 
of Palo Santo, which ran down the mountain-side towards the coast. Above 
its highest walls the forest trees crowded together and peered over them into 
the profound abyss but as it broadened out and the walls fell down lower and 
lower, the trees fled away, fearful perhaps of being engulfed and carried off 
by the stream that roared round the rocks in the chasm. The sun's rays fell 
slantwise across the canon, illuming its western wall, but leaving the eastern 
in deepest shadow. The agaves on the western brink were changed to glisten- 
ing candelabra, with their branching spikes of blossoms; the gray cacti showed 
all their fluted columns, the prickly pears their crimson flowers. Steadily 
crept the shadow of the eastern down the western wall, as the sunbeams 
searched for the foaming waters of the stream within the chasm. The trumpet- 




BALCONIES OF GRANADA. 



ON THE WAY TO GRANADA, 227 

trees, with great leaves of green and silver, were quickened into life again, and 
tremulously shook off their burden of pearly dewdrops upon the orchids 
and the dank earth underneath. 

Just where the crowns of the trumpet-trees reached the summit platform 
of one of the lower cliffs a broad ledge jutted from it, overarched by impend- 
ing rock. Here, sheltered from observation by protecting rock and trees, 
reposed a little hut of clay, built like a swallow's nest against the wall. Its 
only aperture, the doorway, opened eastward, and its occupants were early 
awake, to receive the first glow from the sky. They were two in number, — an 
old man and a boy, whose complexions of golden bronze showed the noble 
Indian blood of the ancient tribe of the Totonacas. The boy was the first 
to emerge, drawing about him a coarse woollen sarapito (or Mexican blanket), 
his only other garment being his white cotton pantaloons. His face was bright 
as the sun that shone against it, his great black eyes were wide open with frank- 
ness and innocence, his red lips parted in a smile that showed his white and 
beautiful teeth. He could not have exceeded ten years of age, yet he had 
in his bearing the self-poise of a man full grown. 

"Padre mio," he said, in low, sweet tones, "wilt thou not rise, father mine, 
and come out into the sunshine ? Come and sit in the sun, while I go down 
to the river." 

" Yes, my little son ; but come and lead your father into the light. El sol 
is bright, I doubt not, but I can only feel his heat, and never more see his 
brightness." 

" True, little father; I would that thou hadst one of Bernalito's eyes, and he 
one the less ; it troubles me to see thee sit in darkness." 

The boy led his aged, sightless parent through the doorway, and to a 
rock in the sun. 

" There, padrecito, rest awhile; I will soon return." 

The blind man sank to his seat with a sigh, while his son leaped down a 
rock-bewn stairway to the river, nearly one hundred feet below. After bathing 
face and hands, he dipped out a calabash of water, and hastened with it up 
the steep. Then he quickly lighted a fire, and prepared some atolli (or corn 
gruel), which served as their simple breakfast. Having swept out their hut 
and set near his father food and drink for the day, he made ready to depart, 
swinging over his shoulder a sack of tiger-skin containing some parched corn 
and strips of dried beef. 

" Adios, padrecito ; Bernalito must leave thee now, for the sheep are 
calling from the corral. Dost need anything more ? " 

" No, my little son, my only jewel, thy father needs nothing more — save 



2 28 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

that the good Master in heaven send him rest ; for truly, life alone, and in dark- 
ness, is wearisome." 

The tears sprang to Bernalito's eyes as he kissed his father's brow and 
smoothed back the whitened hair. Taking his face in his hands a moment, 
and imprinting another kiss, he picked up his sling and staff, and swiftly went 
away. 

" Adios I " he cried from the rock steps. " Look for my coming when the 
sun leaves thee in shadow." 

The old Indian remained motionless, his face set in an expression of hope- 
less sorrow. Two years had passed since blindness had fallen upon him ; his 
days were spent in solitude, helpless, upon the cliff. His sole possession was 
a little flock of sheep and a garden beyond the woods, the entire care of which 
now fell upon Bernalito. He drove the flock into the meadows every morning, 
and watched them all day long, with no other companion except his little dog. 
Now and then he left his sheep to themselves, and worked manfully in the half- 
wild forest garden. With his sling he sometimes secured birds and rabbits, 
which supplied them with their only meat, except an infrequent strip of dried 
beef (or tassajd). 

But notwithstanding his lonely life of unremitting toil, Bernalito was 
happy ; his only sorrow was his father, and even for him he looked hopefully 
into the future. 

" If I could only reach the great Medico of Cordova," he thought, as he 
descended the cliff, " and bring that learned doctor to see padrecito, his sight 
might be restored. But it would cost much money, I fear, more than four 
pesos y — all I have; but then, four dollars is a great sum; that ought to pay 
the Medico for his medicine. If I can but add another peso to it, I will go 
to see him." 

Farther down the canon, where the great walls were spread apart with a 
broader space between, was the corral, — a pen with walls of rock and a wicket 
gate. As Bernalito opened the gate, his little flock poured forth tumultuously, 
and took the narrow path to the pasture-land, while Fidencio, the nightly 
guardian of the fold, leaped upon him and frisked about with barks of wel- 
come. The boy was glad to see his sheep again; he followed them to the 
rocky pasture, and sat down, while Fidencio lay at his feet. The dog was 
puzzled, for his master had not received him with his usual cheerful greeting; 
he winked his big brown eyes sorrowfully, while his cars drooped and his tail 
hung limp. Bernalito was revolving a scheme in his mind, — a scheme by 
which his father might have news of the Medico that very week. He would 
leave Fidencio to care for the sheep, and go to the garden, and there dig out 






nvf rr>. 






.,• _^m,r/ \f lilt 




A FAMILY OF MENDICANTS. 



O N THE WAY TO GRANADA 



231 



■®t- ■•■£ 



yams enough to sell in Cordova on the next day. At the same time he would 
contract with the doctor to cure his father's blindness. There seemed to him 
no wiser plan ever conceived in the world, and he hastened to put it into execu- 
tion. Fidencio received his orders gravely enough, and sat up erect on a rock, 
where he could command a view of the pasture ; but he followed with asking 
eyes the movements of his mas- 
ter, and entirely ignored the mor- JTTT 5 " ^ ■ 
sel of meat left for his dinner. 

An hour later, Bernalito was 
in the garden beyond the forest, 
where he began to work with- 
out delay. It was more difficult 
labor than he had expected, for 
the wilder vegetation had almost 
taken possession of the garden, 
and nearly choked out the maize 
and banana plants by their rank 
luxuriance of growth. So the 
day drew near its ending, the 
backload of yams was gathered, 
and when these had been col- 
lected and carried (in a netted 
sack of twine) to the verge of 
the clearing, there was little day- 
light left. Darkness was already 
settling upon the path, and in 
the gorges below it was quite 
black when he had deposited 
his burden at the point selected. 
It was not far from the forest 
path to Cordova, and he thought 
he would run over to it for a 
moment. As he drew near a bank above the intersection of the two trails, he 
heard the sound of a human voice, and halted, drawing into deeper shade ; for 
voices seldom broke the silence of those woods at that hour. The road to 
Cordova, merely a footpath deep-worn by the tread of Indians for centuries, 
was below him some twenty feet. Thence the sounds proceeded ; and by look- 
ing over carefully, concealed as he was by wild plantains and the general gloom, 
he saw the owners of the voices, — two men huddled together in a hollow of the 




CHATTO DIAZ. 



232 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

bank. One of them was then lighting a cigarette, and as the flame of the match 
lit up his face, bringing out strongly every feature, Bernalito drew back swiftly 
into the shade, clutching at his breast, as though to still the loud throbbing of 
his heart. 

" Dios mio ! " he uttered under his breath; " that is none else than Chatto 
Diaz, the guerillero of the mountains ! " 

He crouched in his hiding-place like a frightened squirrel, his slender frame 
trembling violently. 

This guerillero (or bandit), Chatto Diaz, was the terror of the region, — an 
outlaw whose crimes were greater than those of any other in the country. Like 
the puma, the mountain lion, he delighted in deeds of blood merely for the 
pleasure of committing them. All dreaded him, — all, rich and poor; the 
wealthy hacendado and the lowly peon, — for he killed merely for the sake of 
killing. 

" What can I do? " tremblingly inquired Bernalito of himself. " If he sees 
me, he will kill me, as he did my poor Juanito, when he met him and dashed 
him into the canon. But why is he here? Perhaps — hush ! they are speaking 
together again." 

The two bandits smoked awhile in silence, then one addressed the other: 
" How does el capitan know that he will come this way to-night? " 

" No matter how I know," responded the captain. His companion did 
not call him Chatto, the flat-nose, for that was a name only used beyond his 
hearing. 

"What is that to you? But he is coming, and soon, with his saddle-bags 
full of gold from the mine in the corro, and his mozo behind him driving a 
cargo mule heavy laden with silver." 

"But why kill him? Why not lasso him, tie him to a tree, and make 
for the lava-beds? He cannot take us!" 

Chatto blew forth a whiff of smoke directly into his comrade's face, 
" That for thy fears ! " he growled. " Know you not that dead men make less 
trouble than living? " 

" Es verdad (it is true)," quickly assented the other; " but Senor Ancona 
never did me any ill; though if you will kill him I shall offer no objection." 

" I will make short work of him, don't you fear; you may have the mozo 
as yours." 

11 But when shall we meet him, and where? " 

" At the ford, where the great cliff ends the canon. He takes the cross-trail, 
to shorten his journey; and faith, it will be shorter than he thinks!" 

" At the ford! " gasped Bernalito, with white lips in horror apart; "where 



ON THE WAY TO GRANADA. 233 

our little house looks down upon the river, — they will do murder there ! O 
my padrecito ! But when ? " 

" Bueno capitano ! Very good ; we will stop him there. Two hours from 
now, did you say? " 

" Si, that I said. Leave the horses here ; it is only an hour through the 
forest. Hist ! I heard a noise above us ! Is any one here? " 

"Oh, no; nobody in these forests, except old Manuel, the blind man, who 
lives in the canon somewhere near the ford." 

" Bien! If he is very near we may have the pleasure of seeing him fly 
over his own cliff-tops. Caramba ! I remember his hut, half-way up the 
farther cliff. Surely, we are in luck to-night. I have it now; we will drop 
el sefior Ancona at the foot of his stairway, and that will be a rich time when 
the alcalde finds him there. It would be better to see the old rascal dragged 
off to jail than to spill his blood, — much as I would like to do that. I would n't 
miss that part of the play. I will hide in the rocks and see it performed." 

The saturnine Chatto chuckled, and smacked his lips ; but Bernalito, as he 
heard this dreadful revelation, lay prone upon the ground, his young life nearly 
crushed out of his body. Had his own life been the only one at stake, he might 
then and there have lost consciousness, for the night was black with horror ; 
but his senses recovered when he felt that his father's life was menaced. Not 
for himself, for others he must act at once ; he slowly withdrew from the bank. 
It was quite dark, but the trail was too familiar for him to lose it; though he 
could not be aware of the exact location of every palm-leaf in it, and, despite 
his caution, stepped on one that crackled loudly. The bandits had risen from 
their smoke-talk, and were then going toward their horses ; but the noise, 
slight as it was, startled them. Chatto rushed up to the bank, but only in 
time to note a receding formless figure. 

" Hola ! " he shouted. " Halt ! I fire ! " 

No sooner said, than the flash of his revolver was followed by a report, 
but the fleeing figure did not stop. 

" Follow me, Pedro. Our game is up unless we stop this peril lo. On 
now, quick ! " 

Bernalito had an advantage in his perfect knowledge of the trail, but 
scarcely less accurate was that of the bandit, who had prowled through these 
woods for years. He was heavier, though, and encumbered by boots and 
accoutrements, while the prey he pursued was lightly clad. 

" O padrecito mio!" panted the boy. "If I can but save thee and then 
the sefior ! What must I do, — go to thee first or to the stranger? Dios mio* 
— Father in heaven, — help thou Bernalito ! " 



2 34 



RAMBLES IX SUXXY SPAIN. 



He could hear the terrible, heavy breathing of Chatto crashing through 
the fallen branches and stumbling over the stones; but steadily the noise of 
pursuit grew fainter. The canon was reached : down among the water-worn 

bowlders he plunged, 
leaping from one to 
the other; then he was 
out again, at the foot 
of the cliff on which 
the dwelling rose ; he 
could see the wall be- 
hind it, in the faint 
light of the rising 
moon. He listened. 
Down below in the 
corral the sheep were 
bleating. Did he not 
hear his father's voice 
feebly calling ? His 
little heart felt about 
to burst; but he reso- 
lutely held back all 
inclination to climb 
the cliff, and decided 
to go on to warn 
the stranger. Swiftly 
was this conclusion 
reached, for beyond 
the stream he could 
hear again the noise 
made by his pursuer. 
He fled on, climbing 
the trail leading into the thither forest above the canon. 

" O father mine," he sobbed, " what am I leaving you to? May the good 
God direct me to do what is right! What if el sehor should not come? Then 
all will be merely lost. Then I go back to die ! " 

It was too late to do else than keep on. If he had climbed the cliff to 
lead out his father, Chatto would have been at the ford before he could have 
hidden. No, there was nothing else to do. But what if Seiior Ancona should 
be late ? What if he should be a coward and return ? 




THE BANDIT PEDRO. 



ON THE WAY TO GRANADA. 235 

These thoughts appalled him; but on he went, torn and bleeding from 
the thorny vines of the wood, his strength fast failing. Could he reach the 
coming traveller — and was he coming? Chatto, the flat-nose, floundered 
through the flood, and sank breathless at the base of the precipice. His 
companion reached the bank he had left ere he went on again. 

"Ho, there, Pedro, is that you? Yes? Then come over here and seat 
yourself, while I go some farther on. If I don't catch that whelp that listened, 
we may as well go back. Who is he, think you? " 

Pedro reached him and sat down by his side. " I don't know," he said, 
" but have a thought that it is Manuel's boy, though he is young. Did you 
see him? " 

" No, not plainly. Would my pistol miss him, if I had seen him ? " 

" True, capitan. I beg your pardon. What now ? " 

Chatto scowled blackly, communing with his evil thoughts. " What 
now?" he said at last. "Why, blood I periilo. Whose? Well, it will be 
useless to follow the unknown. Ancona and his gold are lost to us to-night. 
Whose blood, then, do you say ? Whose but the Indian's ? Wait awhile, 
till I breathe more steadily ; then we will climb these stairs, and toss the old 
ciego over the brink." 

" But, capitan, he has not injured us ; he has no gold. Why not press 
on after the hacendado ? " 

" Ferdito ! Not hurt us ! Who else was it but his son that spoiled our 
plans ? No gold, you say; I do not always kill for gold; something redder 
than gold pleases me most ! As for Ancona, when he hears that I am here 
in waiting for him, he turns back; and the boy, he cannot stay long away; 
we will feed him to the cray-fish of the canon ! Vamos ! up the rocks ! Toss 
old Manuel over and I will catch him on my machete." 

" Bernalito ! " 

" Hark ! he is there ; hear him, calling his boy, perhaps. Oh yes, Bernalito 
is coming. Stay here, Pedro; let me have the pleasure of this affair." 

Swinging along at a swift walk, the horse of Senor Ancona was bearing 
his rider rapidly toward the canon. A few rods more, and he would emerge 
from the wood and pick his way down the trail among the rocks. It was 
lighter there, for the moon was well up in the sky, and Senor Ancona looked 
forward to that bit of moonlight gratefully, for the forest was very dark and 
grewsome. Suddenly his horse stops and snorts in alarm. The rider, hastily 
gripping the bridle-rein, looking up, sees a dusky form standing before him, 
with head raised. His own hand quickly grips the pistol in its holster, and 
he cries out, Ho/a / What do you want?" 



236 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

" It is I, Bernalito," replies the one addressed, in a strained, quivering 
voice ; and then he runs forward and lays a hand on the stirrup nearest him. 

" They are below in the canon, — Chatto and a compahero ; they seek to 
kill you, senor." 

" Me ! Chatto there ! He would kill me if he should meet me in such 
a place. Get up, then, behind me, and we will ride back. Quick ! give me 
your hand." 

11 Oh, no, senor" fearfully cried the boy; " no, don't go back; my father 
is there, and they will kill him." 

" Who is your father, child? " 

"Manuel, senor." 

"The blind man?" 

" Si senor, he has lost his sight." 

Estefan Ancona, as proprietor of an estate, enjoying many peons, or 
Indian slaves, held in light esteem the life of an Indian; but his own life had 
been certainly saved by the warning brought him by the boy, and he could not 
do less than listen. 

" Where is your father, child? " 

" On the cliff, in the casita!' 

" Can we reach it except by going down the trail? It would be folly to 
walk into the fording-place which they are watching." 

" Si, senor ; but the horse cannot go; there is a narrow path through the 
rocks; it comes out behind the casita. But hasten, senor, I pray you." 

The pitiful face, lighted by its great, entreating eyes, looked up with such 
appeal that the rider could not resist. 

" Bten, little one; one such favor as you have done me requires a re- 
quital; here Santos [to his mozo, who had just arrived], hold my horse; give 
me my carbine ; wait here till I come. Now, amigito, onward ! " 

Bernalito led the way across the rugged barren, holding tight the revolver 
Senor Ancona had given him to carry, his limbs trembling, his heart heavy 
with fear. They reached the brink of the canon and listened, — no sound. 
They entered a rift in the broad platform of rock, and descended toward the 
casita, — the little hut on the ledge. 

" Have a care, senor, it is only a little way. Hark! Is not that padrccito, 
calling? Yes! it is; he is in trouble, in pain. Hasten, oh, hasten! " 

The bandits had reached the casita, and had found the Indian sitting there 
motionless. The noise of their approach awoke him from his attitude of 
despair, and he cried joyfully, "Bernalito! At last!" 

Chatto laughed fiercely: " No, old man; no Bernalito comes to you to- 



ON THE WAY TO GRANADA. 237 

night It is Chatto, — your friend Chatto. Did you ever hear of him? He 
has come to end your troubles." 

Stupefied from disappointment, his victim did not answer. 

Chatto stood by, maliciously noting his despair. " Speak, old man," he 
said. 

" I care not for life, it is well if you end it; but my Bernalito, — have you 
done harm to him?" 

" To him? Not yet; but I will, doubt you not ! " 

" And avert it I cannot ! Father in heaven, care for my Bernalito ! " 

" That 's enough. Come, are you ready ? " The aged Indian made no 
reply, but clasped his hands, and raised his sightless eyes to the sky. His had 
been a joyless life; the end could come none too quickly. Chatto grew 
impatient; he was ill-satisfied with such submission, for he delighted in groans 
and cries, and struggles. 

He seized the blind man by the hair, and turned toward the brink of the 
precipice ; but at this instant a slight noise arrested his attention. Turning to 
the crevice whence it came, he saw the gleam of steel, and his quick apprehen- 
sion at once grasped the situation. Loosing his hold, he darted behind a ledge, 
and a puff of smoke from the crevice warned him of the danger of delay. The 
report of Don Estefan's carbine had hardly died away ere the bandit was half- 
way down the cliff, and the Jiacendado himself knew that it was useless to 
follow him. 

Aroused by the noise, the blind man groped about for some familiar 
object; he heard a well-known voice : " Padrecito mio, art thou alive?" And 
Bernalito pillowed the aged head on his shoulder and burst into sobs and 
tears. 

" Bernalito, and hast thou returned? I waited long, my son ; I was weary. 
I fancy that I must leave thee — and to whom? I could die happily did I 
know some one would care for Bernalito." 

Don Estefan came forward then and took one of the wrinkled hands in 
his. " Manuel," he said, "I am here. Your boy saved my life; I will care 
for him and for you." 

Bernalito looked up, brushing back his tears. 

" And the Medico, seTwr, — the great doctor of Cordova? " 

" He shall see your father to-morrow, or as soon as we can find him." 

Thus was Bernalito's prayer to be answered. In the morning, as the first 
beams of the joyous sun struck the cliff, they wended their way down the 
canon and went together to the hacienda near Cordova. 



2 3 8 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



When el Schor had concluded, we all applauded, of course ; for 
whatever the merits of his story, he had shown himself to be muy 
simftatico, as the Spaniards say, or very sympathetic. Then we turned 
our attention to the country through which we were passing, and its 
history ; for some of the most interesting episodes of the conquest of 
Granada occurred right here. The first act in the final drama played 




LOUNGERS. 



here by the Moors was, as we have said, the taking of Zahara by the 
Moorish king, in 1481. Then the Spaniards retaliated. In February, 
1482, Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, Marquis of Cadiz, fell upon the lonely 
Moorish town of Alhama and captured it, holding it until succored 
by Ferdinand, acrainst preat odds. After that there was no rest for 
either Moor or Christian in Andalusia. One party or the other was 
raiding the populous towns or ravishing the fertile fields. Finally, 
after years of preparation, King Ferdinand himself came down. He 




2 
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■ ' iii liiM^iiiffllllwif 



ON THE WAY TO GRANADA. 241 

attempted to capture the city of Loxa, which lay right in sight from the 
railroad an hour or two after we had passed Antequera. The Spanish 
army was repulsed, but some years later succeeded in taking it, after 
terrible slaughter. It was in 1490 that the final preparations were 
made for the capture of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors. 
Three or four years previously nearly all the towns around the great 
vega (or plain) of Granada had been taken, one by one. The name 
Granada is said to mean a pomegranate. Said King Ferdinand : 
" I will pluck out the seeds from this pomegranate, one by one, and 
then take the fruit itself." And so he did. He captured all the out- 
posts, such as Illora and Moclin, and in April, 1491, sat down before 
the city of Granada with his army of fifty thousand horse and foot. 
In less than a year from that time Granada had capitulated, and the 
ancient capital passed out of Moorish possession forever. 

The fall of Granada is said to have been hastened by the rivalry of 
two tribes, or factions, among the Moors themselves. Those of the tribe 
of the Abencerrages were the most noble and humane, and the most 
favorably disposed toward the Spaniards. It is said they were de- 
scended from the ancient kings of Arabia. The fierce African Zegris 
were their rivals, many of them descended from kings of Morocco, 
and they were bloodthirsty in the extreme, sparing no captives, and 
hating the Spaniards intensely. In Granada, the Moors had dwelt for 
two hundred and fifty years, until expelled by the armies of Ferdi- 
nand, in 1492. It was the last capital of the last Moorish kingdom 
in Spain, — their last hold in Europe. And toward this ancient 
capital, as the darkness of night fell about us, we sped across the 
vega, sleepy and tired. 



10 



CHAPTER XIII. 



GRANADA. — THE ALHAMBRA. 





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gsjvyift 





HANKS to our Spanish friends, we were not 
obliged to 20 to a hotel when we arrived at 
Granada, but obtained rooms in a quaint old 
house above the town, and near the walls of 
the Alhambra. Andalusia, the Tierra de Maria 
Santissima (the " Land of the Most Holy Vir- 
gin "), comprises eight great provinces in the 
southern part of Spain, — Seville, Granada, 
Malaga, Cadiz, Cordova, Jaen, Huelva, and Almeria, — with over three 
millions population. In this territory are the finest cities of Spain, 
and the grandest cathedrals. We cannot more than allude to many of 
them; for, besides those of Andalusia, there are many others of great 
interest ; such as Barcelona, on the northeast coast, with its magnifi- 
cent harbor, its fine buildings, and memorials of the terrible Inqui- 
sition. A great exposition was held there this year (i 888), to which 
all parts of Spain had contributed, and where all the people were 
represented. South of that lies Tarragona, likewise an ancient city, 
now famous for its wines ; and still farther south, Valencia, the centre 
of a famous agricultural district, and a great hunting-ground in certain 
seasons. North of Valencia are the ruins of Murviedro, the ancient 
Roman city of Saguntum, whose inhabitants once perished in a 
terrible siege But we are going to describe only Granada, and end 
our journey at the Moorish palace of the Alhambra. 




TOMB OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA IN THE CATHEDRAL OF GRANADA. 



GRANADA. — THE ALHAMBRA. 245 

Granada, as we have already remarked, is said to have derived its 
name from the Moorish name for a pomegranate, as it stands on 
four hills, divided like a pomegranate. It is built on the edge of a 
great plain, fertile and highly cultivated, called the Vega, and runs 
around the bases and up the sides of two hills. One of these hills 
is crowned by the Alhambra, and the other by the Albaicin, — an- 
ciently the Moorish city. Between them flows the beautiful river 
Darro, which cleaves the city in two, and joins the Xenil on the 
southern side of Alhambra hill. 

The principal street of Granada is called the Vivarambla, and used 
to run along the banks of the Darro, but now partially covers it, as 
the stream is covered, over for a long distance. The quaintest street 
of Granada is the Zacatin, once the old market-place of the Moors, 
where they sold fine silks and jewels, manufactured by themselves. 
The finest building, of course, is the great cathedral, which covers 
the site of the Moorish mosque, and contains many rich articles of 
ecclesiastical furniture. Attached to this cathedral is the royal chapel, 
where lie buried Ferdinand and Isabella, those sovereigns of Spain 
under whom the Moors were expelled, and the voyages made whereby 
America was discovered. Their tombs are of the finest sculptured 
alabaster, and surmounted by the chiselled effigies of the king and 
queen. Beneath them is a vault containing four leaden coffins, 
enclosing their remains and those of their daughter Joanna and her 
husband, Philip. In an adjoining room are shown several relics of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, — his sword, and her sceptre and illuminated 
prayer-book. For Granada these royal personages considered the 
brightest jewel in their kingdom, and commanded that they should be 
brought here to be buried, wherever they might die. Their wish was 
fulfilled ; and there they lie to-day, in marble effigy, as they have lain 
now nearly four hundred years, in the city they captured from the 
Moors. But it is not our purpose to spend further space in describing 
Granada, when its people are so peculiar and exceedingly interesting. 



"\ 



246 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

Though we stayed in Granada nearly a month, our spare hours, of 
course, were devoted to the Alhambra, and to excursions to various 
points of the Vega made interesting by their historical associations. 
The gypsy quarters above the River Darro frequently attracted us. 
There these peculiarly degenerate people, the Zincali, or Gypsies, 
dwell in caves hollowed out of the rocky hillside. They are dirty, 
dishonest, and inclined to mob every stranger who may seem afraid 
of them. How they live no one knows; but they are persistent beg- 
gars, and gain a great deal in this way, and by " telling fortunes." 
Their rude dances and wild songs may be heard at every fair and 
bull-fight (outside the ring), and they are the worst horse-thieves and 
jockeys in the world. 

It took us a long while to get accustomed to Spanish ways, but 
after we did, we had little trouble. Perhaps their postal arrangements 
are the most curious to a stranger. To illustrate the extent of our 
credulity and implicit confidence in the perfection of postal regulations, 
it is enough to state the manner in which a letter is consigned to the 
mails in this land of Cervantes and Quixote. In the first place, you 
have no direct communication at all with those most concerned in 
the transportation of the mails. You have no disputes with the post- 
master, as, for instance, who shall " lick " the stamps, or who shall pay 
the postage, for you don't see that official. The government guards 
against possible defalcation by depriving the officials of the privilege 
of selling the stamps. When you wish to buy stamps, you must go 
to the tobacco-shop. Government not only manufactures and sells 
cigars and cigarettes, — probably the vilest in the world, — but allows 
the tobacconist to sell postage-stamps, the authorized depositories 
for both being under the same roof. 

The tobacconist is generally a lady, — at least she is a female, — 
and as you enter the shop with bucnas tardcs or bucnos dias, she 
responds with elegance, and when you leave tells you to " Go with 
God," that being the literal rendering of Vaya con Di'os. caballcro* 



.^'ur ~- 







GRANADA. — THE ALHAMBRA. 249 

After your letter is weighed, you affix the stamps and seek the letter- 
box. There is only one in the city, and that is supposed to lurk 
somewhere behind or beneath the yawning mouth of a lion, carved 
in stone or cast in iron, in the wall of the Correo. Having thrust 
your letter between the lions jaws, and having heard it drop with 
a thud somewhere behind the wall, you then consider your duty done, 
and the subsequent responsibility rests with somebody you never saw 
and never heard of. 

Of tobacco, a government monopoly, there are divers kinds, but no 
kind so poor, so wretchedly prepared, so altogether villanous, as that 
sold in Spain. As to whether or no we speak from experience, we 
are not going to commit ourselves ; but enough is it to watch its 
effect upon the consumers of the weed. A certain acquaintance of 
ours who affects a great sympathy for the departed Moors because, 
we suspect, they are departed, and who hates the Spaniards for per- 
haps exactly opposite reasons, thinks he sees in this universal and 
inveterate consumption of vile tobacco a means of extirpation of the 
race now dominant in Spain. He assumes, first, that the tobacco 
furnished by government is a slow but sure poison ; secondly, that 
nearly every male Spaniard is a consumer of this poisonous product ; 
thirdly, that the Spaniard will soon succumb to the combination, In 
other words, the nation is slowly smoking itself to death, — the male 
majority of it. Its only salvation, in his opinion, lies in the fact 
that most of the women and the children are non-consumers. This 
whimsical opinion may have a little weight, and we give it for what it 
is worth. 

But the Alhambra ? Yes, patience yet a little ; we will now visit 
it. The rivers Darro and Xenil are divided by a great hill called 
Cerro del Sol (ox Hill of the Sun), and on the plateau where this hill 
overlooks Granada the Alhambra is built. A space of several acres 
is enclosed by a broken line of fortifications composed of walls and 
high towers. On the Xenil side rises the oldest towers of them all, 



2SO 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



the Torres Vermejas (or Vermilion Towers), said to be of Roman, 
perhaps even of Phoenician foundation. Opposite these towers, on 
another spur of the hill, is the Terre de la Vela, with strong fortifi- 
cations, where the Christian banner of the Spanish conquerors was 
first displayed after the conquest in January, 1492. Here also is 
the Moorish bell which tolls throughout the nights during the 




GATE OF JUSTICE, ALHAMRRA. 

seasons of cultivation, resailatinp- the irri^atin^ of the Vesfa in some 
mysterious way that we could not understand. Just below it is the 
Tower of Justice, erected in the year 1348, a tower forty-seven feet 
wide and sixty-two high, with a high, arched doorway, the Gate of 
Justice, having a carven hand in its keystone, and inscriptions in 
praise of God. On the inside arch, and on another inner gate called 
Puerta del Vino, a key is carved, and Arabic tradition has it that 




GENERAL VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA. 



GRANADA. — THE ALHAMBRA. 



2 53- 



when the hand outside shall reach down and grasp the key within, 
then Moslem Moorish power shall be restored in Spain ; and it is- 
not likely that it ever will be sooner. Inside this gateway, with its 
winding way, the khalif sat in Moorish times to give justice to 
his subjects. 

Between the Vermilion Towers and the Gate of Justice is a deep 
valley filled with lofty elms, through which lead avenues, — one up 
the hill to the beautiful summer palace of the Moors called the Gene- 
raliffe, and others to either side. On the central one, above, two hotels 
are built, — the Washington Irving and the Siste Snelos (or Seven 
Vaults). Rapid streams run down the hill, fountains play in the 
glorietas, and nightingales sing sweetly here by day as well as by 
night. Climbing the hill through one of the lateral avenues, enter- 
ing the Gate of Justice and passing beyond, you reach the Plaza 
de los Algibes (or Square of the Cisterns), so called because of vast 
subterranean cisterns beneath it where water is stored for use in the 
city below, and is carried thither by means of donkeys, and great jars 
on men's shoulders. Opposite this is a great circular building called 
the Palace of Charles V., because erected by that monarch, though 
never finished. It is an intrusion here, and should not have been 
allowed. The Alhambra, in Moorish times, is said to have been 
capable of containing twenty thousand people within its limits. It 
is a collection of great courts (or patios), about which are corridors, 
with tanks of water or fountains in their centres, and of towers at 
intervals, containing beautifully decorated halls. Enter with us now 
the first real court of the Alhambra, — the Arab palace built by suc- 
cessive Moorish kings. Its towers and walls overhang the Darro, and 
from their loopholes and windows most beautiful views are given the 
observer. Exteriorly these walls are plain and severe, and give no 
hint of the gorgeous rooms within. The first court we enter is 
called La Berkah (or of the Tank), because of a great fish-pond in its 
centre one hundred and twenty-four feet long and twenty-seven wide. 



254 



RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN 



On two sides are beautiful corridors, and' at one end rises the great 
tower of Comares, containing the celebrated Hall of the Ambassa- 
dors. This was the great reception-room of the sultans, and is even 
to-day most gorgeously decorated in color and in stucco adornment. 
Looking out of its windows, we can see right below us the river 
Darro, and opposite, the Albaicin and the rock-dwellings of the 
gypsies. 

The most famous court here is the central Patio of the Lions, 
which was constructed in the year 1377. It is one hundred and 
twenty-six feet long, seventy-three wide, and twenty-two high, and 
its corridors and pavilions contain one hundred and twenty-eight 
slender marble columns. From two ends a marvellously beautiful 
porch or pavilion projects, with alabaster columns and lace-like stucco- 
work. In its centre is the celebrated fountain which has given it 
its name, — a great twelve-sided basin ten feet in diameter and two 
deep, upon the backs of twelve uncouth creatures which somewhat 
resemble lions. A tradition states that the children of the Moorish 
kins: Aben Hasen were all beheaded here on the ed^e of this foun- 
tain, — all except Boabdil, who alone deserved this fate, and who 
lived to ruin his kingdom. Two other courts open into this ; one is 
called the Abencerrages (or that of the Royal Guard), because here 
were murdered all the members of a royal guard, and their blood- 
stains are still pointed out. This hall, as well as the one opposite 
(that of the Two Sisters), has a lofty, domed ceiling, composed of" 
five thousand pieces of reed and plaster, and so wonderfully wrought 
and painted as to seem like a bit of heaven's dome itself brought 
down to earth. Across one end the Lions' Court is the Hall of 
Justice (Sala del Tribunal), seventy-five feet long and sixteen wide, 
with alcoves that once were occupied by divans ; and it has most 
beautiful mosaics and iridescent tiles. Here, tradition states, the 
Moorish khalifs held court. Here Isabella once received in state. 
In the Hall of the Two Sisters and in various alcoves are latticed 



GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 255 

windows, through which the sultanas and princesses peeped, seeing, 
yet unseen, behind their jealously-guarded jalousies. Opening out 
of this great hall is a lovely little room looking into an orange 
garden with central fountain ; and this is known as the Mirador of 
Lindaraja (or the Boudoir of the Sultana), and is wonderfully rich 
in mosaics, tiles, and arabesques, and has a roof composed of bits 
of colored glass. Deep down beneath these halls and corridors are 
the extensive subterranean fountains, lighted only from above, through 
perforations in their roofs. Here are the alcoves where the Moors 
reclined after their baths, while their musicians discoursed delightful 
music in a gallery above. Through the perforated floor, at inter- 
vals, wafts of incense came up and lulled their senses into balmy 
sleep. 

These are only the principal rooms, corridors, and courts ; for 
there are many others, — more than we have space to describe. The 
Alhambra was indeed a dwelling fit for kings, and we do not wonder 
that the Moors declared that heaven and earth approached nearest 
together here. Many traditions are related of these palaces ; one of 
them states that the first king who built supplied himself with needed 
gold by the arts of the magician, and another kept an old man in a 
case, who gave him gold in exchange for his soul. Some of the best 
of these may be found in Washington Irvings delightful work on 
the Alhambra, but many others have never been translated out of the 
Spanish. We are pretty certain that the Alhambra was founded by 
King Ibn-al-Ahmar about the year 1248, so that some of it is over 
six hundred and forty years old, while others have been added by 
successive kings. 

There is one pretty tradition we will relate, and this pertains to 
one of the towers outside, in the line of fortifications, and called the 
Tower of the Princesses. It seems that, some five hundred years ago, 
one of the Moorish kings found himself possessed of three beautiful 
daughters, and in order to keep them (rem running away, he shut 



256 RAMBLES IN SUNNY SPAIN. 

them up in this great tower. He made it attractive as heart could 
wish, but yet they languished — for freedom, and perhaps for love. 
Now, it chanced that one of the kings captains brought to the 
Alhambra, one day, several Spanish prisoners, and shut them up in 
another tower, some three hundred feet away from the tower of the 
princesses. Of course, the natural result followed, as the captives 
(three of them, at least) were all good-looking, young, and unmarried, 
and they began making love to the Moorish princesses. That was 
just the sort of thing the princesses were pining for ; and the upshot 
of it was that they let themselves down from their windows, one dark 
night, and then all ran off together. And the two towers may be 
seen to-day, — the Tower of the Princesses and the Tower of the 
Captives, standing in the same places they occupied then, five 
hundred years ago. 

Well, what more can we add ? We wandered for a month through 
the Alhambra, Granada, and over the Vega. We became acquainted 
with places and people, and so in love with them that we wanted to 
stay another month, at least. This could not be ; so we left Granada, 
and shortly after took our separate ways, — the Judge to return to 
France, the Professor and Historian to pursue their explorations 
into Africa ; for we, having got a taste of Moorish ways, and a 
glimpse of Moorish architecture, in Andalusia, determined to cross 
over to Algiers, and thence on to Morocco and the region of the 
Great Desert. Thus it came about that our hunting-trip to Florida 
resulted in a voyage to the West Indies, the West Indies led up to 
Mexico, Mexico to Spain, and Spain to Algiers and the North 
Coast of Africa. Standing, as it were, at the portal to the Dark 
Continent, we will say adios (good-by) to our kind and gentle 
readers. 



